Meta Threads has been a major success. As the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, said, the new social media platform has crossed 10 million users in just seven hours after launch. For a new platform, this is a big number to cross. And it seems that the success of the social media platform is now getting some negative attention.
Twitter is preparing to sue Meta over the launch of Threads. After all, the new platform serves as a direct competitor to the micro-blogging social network. A Twitter lawyer sent a letter to Meta, alleging a violation of multiple intellectual property rights.
Based on current information, Elon Musk, Twitter’s current executive chair and CTO, does not want any competition.
What Did the Letter to Meta for Threads Say?
The letter was to Meta was sent by a Twitter lawyer named Alex Spiro. It basically accuses Mark Zuckerberg and says the following:
“Dear Mr. Zuckerberg:
I write on behalf of X Corp., as successor in interest to Twitter, Inc. (“Twitter”). Based on recent reports regarding your recently launched “Threads” app, Twitter has serious concerns that Meta Platforms (“Meta”) has engaged in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
The Twitter lawyer has also accused Meta of hiring former Twitter employees. According to Spiro, these former employees had access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential info. The lawyer says that Meta assigned these employees to develop the new platform with the sole intent to use the trade secrets of Twitter.
He adds that Meta had the intent to accelerate the Threads app by using those trade secrets. This basically means that Meta was in violation of both the employees stationed at Meta and state and federal law. The full letter that was sent to Mark Zuckerberg for Threads is attached below.
Musk Says “Competition is Fine, Cheating Is Not”
Andy Stone, the communications director of Meta, says that the accusations are baseless. He argues that no engineer at Threads is a former Twitter employee. With this statement, Andy is saying that the competitor platform was made from scratch and without the use of the so-called trade secrets of Twitter.
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To this, Musk displayed his frustration with a tweet. The tweet reads, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.” An interesting thing to note here is there have been many competitors before Threads. For example, there is Bluesky and Mastodon. Both of them could not pick such a stream, and Musk’s response to them was not the same.