Billionaires Brawl Threads vs Twitter

Meta finds itself in potential legal hot water as Twitter threatens litigation over the recently launched Threads app, according to a letter seen by Semafor. The letter addressed to Meta\’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, contains claims from Alex Spiro, Twitter\’s legal counsel, that Meta utilized Twitter’s proprietary information and trade secrets in creating Threads.

Spiro, known for being Elon Musk\’s personal attorney and a partner at Quinn Emanuel law firm, states that Meta solicited “dozens” of former Twitter employees to contribute to Threads\’ development. Given the numerous layoffs following Musk\’s acquisition, this development isn\’t entirely unexpected.

However, Twitter posits that many of these former employees still retain access to Twitter\’s confidential data and trade secrets. The microblogging platform alleges that Meta exploited this situation, tasking these employees to create a “mirror” app, thereby breaching both state and federal laws.

Consequently, Twitter is contemplating legal action, including civil remedies and injunctive relief. It is further demanding Meta to immediately cease the utilization of any Twitter trade secrets or other highly sensitive information and to refrain from data scraping activities on Twitter.

Meta responded to the accusations in a post on Threads. Communications director, Andy Stone, maintained, \”No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that\’s just not the case.\” Despite the impending litigation, Meta appears unfazed, which could be attributed to Twitter’s well-known penchant for initiating legal disputes. Back in May, Twitter accused Microsoft of misusing the company\’s API in conjunction with certain products.

Threads, which was unveiled on a Wednesday night, saw celebrities and brands among the first to join. The new app amassed over 30 million registered users in less than 24 hours since its launch.