Why Twitter lawyer sent threatening 2-page letter to Meta hours after Threads launch

Just a day after its launch, legal drama is already surrounding Meta’s new Threads social media app. Meta has received a stern cease-and-desist letter from rival Twitter, threatening to sue the app over misappropriation of trade secrets and proprietary information. The legal tussle is just the first salvo of what could be a big fight between Twitter and Threads to see which one emerges as the biggest app in the space. 

What is the Threads vs Twitter legal controversy about?

Twitter claims that Meta, in creating Threads, has exploited its confidential information by Meta's strategic hiring of ex-Twitter employees. 

“Over the past year, Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employees. Twitter knows that these employees previously worked at Twitter; that these employees had and continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information; that these employees owe ongoing obligations to Twitter; and that many of these employees have improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices," reads the letter signed by lawyer Alex Spiro, a counsel for Twitter.

The letter goes on to allege that Meta used these employees to create Threads using Twitter’s trade secrets and proprietary knowledge in a matter of months. The letter adds that Twitter “demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information.”

Musk, whose $44 billion takeover of the world’s foremost microblogging site has resulted in difficulties and controversies, also chipped in on the matter. “Competition is fine, cheating is not,” he wrote on Twitter. 

“This is your public square. We’re often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated,” added new Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino.

Meta Rebuts allegations of trade secret misappropriation

Meta, owned by rech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, has vehemently denied the allegations, with its spokesperson, Andy Stone, asserting that no member of the Threads engineering team has previously worked for Twitter. 

 “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing,” he said in a post on Threads.

Threads makes a successful debut 

In spite of the legal turmoil, the Threads app enjoyed a spectacular debut. At the time of writing, the app had amassed over 55 million sign-ups. In comparison, various reports indicate that Twitter’s total active user base is somewhere between 200-250 million. Twitter’s other competition in the microblogging space like Bluesky, Mastodon and others, have not managed to attract even a small fraction of the user base that Threads has so far.

The trade secrets controversy comes as Twitter faces challenges from multiple fronts. Since its acquisition by Musk in October 2022, Twitter has undergone significant changes, including a massive workforce reduction and a contentious decision to limit the number of tweets users can view each day. Despite these setbacks, the platform remains a vital part of the social media landscape.