Twitter Threatens Legal Action Against Meta Over Threads App, Alleging Trade Secret Misappropriation

Date: July 8, 2023

In a recent development, Elon Musk's Twitter has issued a legal threat against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, over the newly launched app Threads. This application has been described as a direct competitor to Twitter, with Meta claiming it has already gained over 30 million users. However, Twitter attorney Alex Spiro has sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, accusing the company of engaging in "systematic, wilful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property" to develop Threads.

According to Spiro, Meta allegedly hired numerous former Twitter employees who possessed and currently have access to Twitter's confidential information, including trade secrets. These individuals are claimed to have played a significant role in the development of Threads, which Twitter deems a "copycat" of its own platform. The letter issued by Twitter demands that Meta immediately ceases using any Twitter trade secrets or highly confidential information. It also emphasizes Twitter's intention to protect its intellectual property rights and warns of potential legal action, including seeking civil remedies and injunctive relief.

Elon Musk, the CEO of various companies including Tesla and SpaceX, took to Twitter to comment on the matter. Musk stated, "competition is fine, cheating is not," implying his support for fair competition while expressing concerns over Meta's alleged actions.

In response, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone refuted the claims made by Twitter, stating, "no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that's just not a thing." Meta denies any wrongdoing and dismisses the allegations of trade secret misappropriation.

A comparison between Threads and Twitter reveals several differences in features. Threads allows posts of up to 500 characters, surpassing Twitter's limit of 280 characters. Moreover, Threads supports longer videos, with a maximum duration of 5 minutes compared to Twitter's 2 minutes and 20 seconds. While both platforms permit the inclusion of links and photos, Twitter offers additional functionalities such as direct messaging, trending stories, and the use of hashtags, which Threads lacks. Notably, Twitter reserves certain features, including verification, longer posts and videos, and an editing function, for users who subscribe to its paid services.

The battle between Twitter and Meta over the alleged misappropriation of trade secrets underscores the intensifying competition in the social media landscape. With Twitter taking a firm stance to protect its intellectual property, the outcome of this dispute could have significant implications for the industry and the future of social media applications.