Twitter is reportedly threatening to sue Facebook and Instagram parent Meta against its newest text-based social media platform, Threads.
According to a cease-and-desist letter obtained by Semafor, Twitter which is owned by Elon Musk who is the wealthiest person in the world, is accusing Meta poached Twitter’s employees and for the “copycat” app, Threads.
Twitter’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, accused Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg of engaging in “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” Spiro wrote in the letter, reports The Guardian.
Speaking to PEOPLE, Meta spokesperson responded on behalf of Threads. “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing,” Stone wrote.
In the letter, Twitter claimed that Meta hired “dozens” of Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information,” and that they have “ongoing obligations” to Twitter and “improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices.”
Twitter went on to claim that Meta “deliberately” hired these employees to develop threads “with the specific intent that they use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate” the development of the app.
Twitter is said it “intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights.”
Elon Musk went on Twitter to say that “Competition is fine, cheating is not”
Mark Zuckerberg, wrote on his Instagram account “Meet Threads, an open and friendly public space for conversation. Our vision is to take the best parts of Instagram and create a new experience for text, ideas, and discussing what’s on your mind. I think the world needs this kind of friendly community.”
Since it’s launch Thursday, more than 30 million users signed on Threads.
