{"id":5290,"date":"2023-07-07T12:25:39","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T16:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/?p=5290"},"modified":"2025-06-23T11:46:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T11:46:19","slug":"twitter-threatens-legal-action-against-meta-over-threads-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/news\/twitter-threatens-legal-action-against-meta-over-threads-app\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter Threatens Legal Action Against Meta Over Threads App"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Twitter is threatening Meta with a lawsuit after the successful launch of Meta’s new Twitter rival, Threads<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The social media giant views the app as a competitive threat, indicating Threads’ impact since its launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accusations of Trade Secret Theft<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An attorney representing Twitter sent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter accusing the company of trade secret theft through the hiring of former Twitter employees. Semafor first reported the letter, and a person familiar with it confirmed its authenticity to CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Meta had engaged in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter\u2019s trade secrets and other intellectual property,” Alex Spiro, an outside lawyer for Twitter owner Elon Musk, wrote in the letter.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In response to reports on the letter, Musk tweeted: \u201cCompetition is fine, cheating is not.\u201d This statement underscores Twitter’s stance on the issue, emphasizing the importance of fair competition in the tech industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allegations Against Former Twitter Employees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The letter says that Meta hired former Twitter employees who \u201chave improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices\u201d and that Meta \u201cdeliberately\u201d involved these employees in developing Threads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights,\u201d Spiro continued, \u201cand demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Meta spokesperson Andy Stone flatly dismissed the letter. \u201cNo one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee \u2014 that\u2019s just not a thing,\u201d he said on Threads. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This statement contradicts the allegations made by Twitter, setting the stage for a potential legal battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Impact of Threads<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the months since Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion, the social network has been challenged by a growing number of smaller microblogging platforms, such as the decentralized social network Mastodon and Bluesky, an alternative backed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Twitter has not threatened either with litigation. Unlike some Twitter rivals, Threads has experienced rapid growth, with Zuckerberg reporting 30 million user sign-ups on the app\u2019s first day. As of Thursday afternoon, Threads was the number-one free app on the iOS App Store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legal threat may not necessarily lead to litigation, but it could be part of a strategy to slow down Meta, said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twitter is threatening Meta with a lawsuit after the successful launch of Meta’s new Twitter rival, Threads.  The social media giant views the app as a competitive threat, indicating Threads’ impact since its launch. Accusations of Trade Secret Theft An attorney representing Twitter sent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter accusing the company of trade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,40,7],"tags":[571,627],"class_list":["post-5290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-media","category-threads","category-x","tag-threads","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9293,"href":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5290\/revisions\/9293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/logie.ai\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}