It appears there would be a new thug of war with the launch of Threads, a rival app by Meta to provide competition to micro blogging platform, Twitter.
According to reports, Twitter has threatened legal action against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, over the release of the now trending Threads app.
The Threads app was launched by Meta on Thursday to allow users engage in threaded conversations and discussions.
The configuration and concept of the app can be said to be akin to that of Twitter’s core functionality, with the new app also giving users the leverage to reply to and conversationally build upon existing tweets.
Twitter is reportedly claiming that the Threads app infringes upon its intellectual property rights and violates certain terms of use.
In a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg published by Semafor from Twitter’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, the Elon Musk owned platform was reported to have frowned at the new app, averring that Meta Platforms (Meta) has engaged in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.
Twitter, according to Spiro, “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 to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta,” Spiro said.
Spiro in the letter also accused Meta of recruiting numerous former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information.”
He further posited that these employees were assigned by Meta to develop the Threads app with the specific intent that they use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property to accelerate the development of Meta’s competing app, in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees’ ongoing obligations to Twitter.
