Threads Feud: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Threatens Legal Action Against Meta
Following the launch of Meta’s Threads, which is seen as a competitor to Twitter, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has threatened to sue Meta over the new platform, as stated in a letter sent by Twitter’s lawyer Alex Spiro to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
In the letter, Spiro accused Meta of hiring former Twitter employees who may have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and highly confidential information. Twitter demands that Meta immediately cease using any Twitter trade secrets or confidential information.
A source confirmed the contents of the letter, although Twitter has not responded to requests for comment. However, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone denied the claim, stating that no former Twitter employees are part of the Threads engineering team.
In response to the news, Musk, the owner of Twitter, stated, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.” Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, aims to leverage Instagram’s user base to compete with Musk’s Twitter.
Experts in intellectual property law suggest that Twitter would need more evidence to press a trade secret theft claim against Meta, as the mere hiring of former Twitter employees and the existence of a similar platform may not be sufficient grounds.
Twitter has faced challenges from competitors such as Mastodon and Bluesky since Musk’s takeover. The launch of Threads poses a new challenge, although it lacks features like keyword searches and direct messages.
The legal battle between Twitter and Meta adds to the series of controversial decisions made by Twitter, which have led to user and advertiser dissatisfaction. Musk’s recent move to limit the number of tweets users can read per day has also generated criticism.
