Twitter Threatens Legal Action Against Threads for Alleged Trade Secret Theft
Twitter has issued a warning to Meta’s social media platform Threads, accusing them of stealing trade secrets and intellectual property. According to reports, Twitter has raised concerns about Meta’s deliberate and illegal use of their confidential data and codes to develop Threads.
Semafor has obtained the content of a leaked email to Twitter’s Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which states: “Based on recent reports regarding your newly launched application ‘Threads’, Twitter is seriously concerned that Meta Platforms (“Meta””) has engaged in systematic, deliberate and illegal Twitter misuse of trade secrets and intellectual property rights.
Twitter threatens to sue Twitter
The email was sent by Twitter attorney Alex Spiro, who is also Elon Musk’s personal attorney. Spiro has claimed that Meta has hired “dozens” of ex-Twitter employees to build Threads, reports The Verge.
Although these employees were hired shortly after Elon Musk took over at Twitter, the company claims many of them still had access to confidential information through the microblogging platform. The allegation is that Meta took advantage of this access and stole the company’s trade secrets.
Meta has responded to the allegations in a post on Threads. Andy Stone, the company’s director of communications, said in a post: “To be clear, ‘No one on the Threads design team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not the case.’
Elon Musk reacts
Musk has also reacted to the news about Twitter threatening legal action after the account had posted about it. The billionaire replied: “Competition is fine, cheating is not”.
The competitive saga of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg
The rivalry between Twitter and the Meta boss is not a new phenomenon. Ever since it was revealed that the latter is building a Twitter-like platform, the two have been at each other’s throats, almost literally!
Musk took the first shot after Meta described Threads as a “sensibly run platform.” In response, Musk tweeted: “I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be solely under Zuck’s thumb with no other options. At least it makes ‘sense’. I was worried there for a second.”
He later responded to a user who reminded Musk that Zuckerberg knows jiu-jitsu, “I’m ready for a cage match if he is lol.” Zuckerberg also got in on the prank, replying to his Instagram story with “Send me your location.”
