Meta responds to Twitter’s lawsuit threat following the introduction of Threads

Twitter has threatened to sue Meta over their new Instagram-connected platform, Threads, and Meta has responded.

Since acquiring the company in October 2022, Elon Musk has made numerous modifications to Twitter that have led many users to seek out an alternative social media platform.

Mastodon, Hive, Bluesky, and others have attempted to rise to the occasion, but Threads, Meta’s Instagram-connected platform, has ultimately stepped up to the plate.

Twitter sent a letter to Meta on July 6, 2023, threatening legal action over the new platform and accusing Meta of employing former Twitter employees to “steal trade secrets.

Twitter asserts Meta made use of trade secrets to create Threads.

According to a document obtained by Max Tani of Semafor, Twitter’s attorney Alex Spiro sent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter containing allegations that Meta employed former Twitter employees and placed them on the team responsible for developing Threads.

This, according to Spiro, constitutes “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”

According to Semafor’s informant at Meta, the allegations are completely false. No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing,” they stated.

There is no doubt that Zuckerberg recognizes the similarities between the two platforms, as he made clear in his first tweet since 2012.

Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of Twitter, made a statement regarding the introduction of Threads on July 6, less than a day after the app went live.

“YOU created Twitter’s community. This is irreplaceable. Here is your town square. “We are frequently imitated, but the Twitter community cannot be replicated,” she stated.

It is uncertain if Threads will be a “Twitter Killer” as many have predicted. Following Musk’s recent announcement that users’ tweets will be rate-limited and Tweetdeck’s move behind the Twitter Blue paywall, however, many are ready to switch to a new platform.