Twitter threatens to sue Meta over its new Threads platform

Twitter is threatening to sue Meta over its new Threads platform, accusing the company of poaching former employees to create a “copycat” app.

“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” Twitter attorney Alex Spiro wrote in a letter obtained exclusively by Semafor. .

“Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil and judicial remedies without further notice to prevent further preservation, disclosure or use of its intellectual property by Meta.”

Elon Musk’s social media platform threatened legal action the same day Meta went live with Threads.

Meta creator Mark Zuckerberg painted Threads as a Twitter rival and saw 30 million people sign up on its first day.

Spiro accused Meta of employing dozens of former Twitter employees who “had and still have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information.”

He also alleged that Meta assigned those staffers to “create Meta’s copycat “Threads” with the intent to use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property to further the development of Twitter’s competitor.

He claimed the app violates both state and federal law, as well as those employees’ “ongoing obligations to Twitter.”

Threads – which tries to appeal to Twitter users by offering longer posts and accounts associated with their Instagram. The platform is the most trending word on Twitter today.

The decision to create the rival comes after Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion. Since then, Musk has led a series of controversial moves, including cutting staff and limiting the number of posts people can see in a day.

That has caused Twitter’s value to plummet, with Fidelity recently estimating that Twitter is worth only a third of what Musk paid.

Musk lashed out at Meta’s new platform, claiming it spreads “false happiness” just like Instagram – which is also owned by Meta.

On the app, Zuckerberg said, “Wow, 30 million signups since this morning. It feels like the start of something special, but we still have a lot of work to do to develop the app.”

The Twitter-like app, which calls retweets “reposts” and tweets “threads,” allows users to post up to 500 characters of text and up to five minutes of video and images.

Threads has been nicknamed “Twitter Killer” online amid animosity between the rival billionaires who recently agreed to go head-to-head in a cage fight – with Rome’s Colosseum as a possible venue.

It came online after their war of words, with Musk repeatedly urging Twitter users to delete their Facebook accounts and calling the social network “limp.”

Chef Gordon Ramsay, pop star Shakira and Mark Hoyle, better known as the YouTuber LadBaby, have already joined Threads and made their presence known on the app. Millions more pre-ordered the app after its launch was announced earlier this week.

The new app is the latest step in the rivalry between Zuckerberg and Musk, which bought Twitter in October.

Said Zuckerberg this week, “I think there should be a public conversation app with over 1 billion people on it. Twitter has had a chance to do this, but it hasn’t done it right. Hopefully we will.’

Musk hit back, tweeting, “It’s infinitely better to be attacked by strangers on Twitter than to indulge in the fake happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.”

Zuckerberg’s Twitter rival received a mixed response following its launch.

Social media erupted with memes slamming the Facebook boss’s new app Threads, which went live in the UK at midnight and allows users to post up to 500 characters of text, five minutes of video and photos.

Twitter users complained about “bugs” and the “lack of basic features” on Threads, with some sharing funny GIFs that said people would “run back to Twitter” after trying it.

The launch was clearly a first attempt at a service as it lacked Twitter’s bells and whistles.

Threads lacks hashtags and keyword searches, meaning users can’t follow real-time events like they do on Twitter. It does not yet have a direct messaging feature and also lacks a desktop version that certain users, such as corporate organizations, rely on.

Some users, including popular tech reviewer Marques Brownlee, have also posted about the need for a feed consisting only of the people one follows. Users currently have little control over the main feed.

Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in October 2022 promised the biggest shakeup since the company was founded in 2006.

Since then, his erratic management style has driven users and advertisers alike to turn away from the site.

The former richest man in the world was eager to take on the project after becoming disillusioned with the site’s perceived bias and moderation policies.

He said he wanted to build a “common digital city square” where all voices could be heard and discussed in a healthy way.

Changes in staff and positions, and the release of the “Twitter Files” took the site in a radical new direction within weeks.

Twitter’s revolution became a bloodbath in the process, cutting staff by 80 percent to take the new direction, then losing users and advertisers as a small team struggled to manage disinformation, trolls and impersonation online.

Musk also recently announced limits on the number of tweets people can see per day. People who paid $8 for a blue tick could see more, but were still limited to a daily count.

But Twitter users have declared the site “dead” because its controversial owner has limited the number of tweets users can view per day.

Musk claimed the restrictions are a temporary measure put in place because “data was looted so often it was a degrading service to normal users.”

However, users were quick to point the finger of blame at the social media network’s staff cuts, as well as the apparent non-payment of bills for crucial services – possibly including Google.