Twitter is contemplating taking legal action against Meta, the parent company of Instagram, over its newly launched rival app called Threads.
Meta has positioned Threads as a “friendly” alternative to Twitter.
Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter, stated that competition is acceptable but cheating is not, while Meta has refuted claims that former Twitter employees were involved in the development of Threads.
According to Meta, over 30 million people have signed up for the app.
Threads bears similarities to Twitter in terms of its appearance and features, such as the news feed and reposting functionality.
Trade Secret
Twitter’s attorney sent a letter to Meta’s CEO accusing the company of unlawfully using Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property to create Threads. The letter demanded that Meta cease using Twitter’s confidential information.
Both Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, CEOs of Twitter and Meta respectively, have acknowledged the rivalry between the two platforms.
The launch of Threads prompted Zuckerberg to break his 11-year silence on Twitter, while Musk commented on the competition.
Both Twitter and Meta have experienced significant staff reductions this year, with Meta announcing layoffs of around 10,000 employees and Twitter facing waves of redundancies following Musk’s takeover.