Twitter has threatened to take legal action against Meta for allegedly hiring former Twitter employees to build the Threads app. Meta’s executives have been advertising Threads, which was released to millions of users on Wednesday, as a “friendly” alternative to Twitter.
However, Meta denied allegations in a court letter that former Twitter employees were involved in the development of Threads. Meta says that the new software has already attracted over 30 million users. Threads is an app that is connected to Instagram but operates independently.
A lawyer representing Twitter, Alex Spiro, alleged that “Meta hired dozens of former Twitter employees who had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information that ultimately helped Meta develop what he termed the “copycat” Threads app.
“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… Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice,” the letter reads.
In response to a tweet that made reference to the legal document, Mr. Musk wrote, “Competition is fine; cheating is not.” A representative for Meta, Andy Stone, stated on Threads that “no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not a thing.”
There have been massive layoffs at both Meta and Twitter this year, with Meta saying in April that it would reduce worker numbers by around 10,000. After Mr. Musk took over Twitter in October of last year, a huge number of its 7,500 employees were laid off in a series of waves.
