'Competition Is Fine, Cheating Is Not': Elon Musk Threatens to Sue Meta Over Threads 'Copying' Twitter Threads officially launched Wednesday.
By Emily Rella
Key Takeaways
- Twitter is threatening to sue Meta over its new app, Threads.
- Twitter's owner, Elon Musk, confirmed the news.
The battle between Mark Zuckerberg's Threads and Elon Musk's Twitter is heating up — Twitter is threatening to sue Meta for "systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property."
A letter written by Twitter's lawyer, Alex Spiro, accused Meta and Threads of using "trade secrets" by hiring dozens of ex-Twitter employees to help build and roll out the new platform, calling it a "copycat" of Twitter's original platform.
"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," the letter reads.
Musk confirmed the proposed suit and letter on Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion last fall.
Competition is fine, cheating is not
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
Threads, which has already garnered over 30 million subscribers, has been called a "Twitter copycat" or a "Twitter killer," depending on who you ask. The app allows users to post text (up to 500 characters), photos, and videos.
Andy Stone, director of communications at Meta, addressed the letter in a Thread and denied allegations that the company was hiring former Twitter employees, saying it was "not a thing."
The legal threat is just the latest news in the ongoing feud between Zuckerberg and Musk. Last month, the billionaires took it as far as proposing a cage-fighting match.
"Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently," Zuckerberg said in a Thread of his own when the platform officially launched this week.
Meta was up over 70.8% year-over-year as of Thursday morning.
