A cease-and-desist letter has been despatched to Mark Zuckerberg by a lawyer appearing for Twitter claiming new Meta app Threads is a “copycat” of the Elon Musk-owned platform.
The letter reportedly accused Zuckerberg of the “systematic, wilful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property”.
It’s written by Alex Spiro, who says he’s appearing on behalf of Musk’s X Corp and likewise accuses Meta of hiring “dozens” of former Twitter workers who “have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information”.
In a tweet referencing the letter on Thursday night, Musk stated: “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
Following the stories, Andy Stone, Meta’s communications director, posted on Threads: “To be clear: No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.”
Threads, created by Fb and Instagram homeowners Meta, went dwell within the UK at midnight on Thursday.
The platform’s launch was introduced ahead by 15 hours and made freely obtainable in 100 nations, though it isn’t but obtainable within the EU attributable to regulatory considerations.
Linked to Instagram, it permits customers to put up as much as 500 characters of textual content and as much as 5 minutes of video and hyperlinks, in addition to footage.
Zuckerberg stated on Thursday signal ups for the app have surpassed 30 million.
Twitter chief govt Linda Yaccarino tweeted on Thursday after the roll out of Twitter’s new competitor: “On Twitter, everybody’s voice issues.
“Whether or not you’re right here to look at historical past unfold, uncover REAL-TIME info all around the world, share your opinions, or study others — on Twitter YOU will be actual.
“YOU constructed the Twitter group. And that’s irreplaceable. That is your public sq..
“We’re often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.”
The launch of Threads comes towards a backdrop of turbulence at Twitter after it imposed tweet viewing limits on the weekend in a transfer it partly blamed on information harvesting by corporations constructing synthetic intelligence fashions.
Many customers have publicly expressed frustrations with Twitter since Musk took over, partly linked to political beliefs and erratic behaviour, in addition to efforts to push extra customers in the direction of its paid-for Twitter Blue service.
The brand new app is the most recent chapter within the rivalry between Zuckerberg and Musk, who purchased Twitter in October.
Final month, the pair – two of the world’s most high-profile billionaires – agreed to take one another on in a cage battle in an alternate that went viral on social media.
