According to Semafor, Twitter’s attorney, Alex Spiro, informed Mark Zuckerberg that Twitter “intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights.”
Twitter has threatened to prosecute the owner of Facebook, Meta, over its Threads platform.
According to news site Semafor, citing a letter from Twitter attorney Alex Spira, the company has notified Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that it “intends to vigorously enforce its intellectual property rights.”
Mr. Spiro reportedly wrote in the letter, “It demands that Meta immediately cease using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information.”
In response to the report, Twitter owner Elon Musk posted on his platform, “Competition is fine; cheating is not.”
It follows the nocturnal launch of Meta’s new Threads platform on Wednesday.
On Thursday afternoon, the digital giant, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, announced 30 million new platform users.
Experts think Threads are Meta’s answer to Twitter, which has evolved drastically since Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyout last October.
Following his acquisition, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO fired half of Twitter’s 8,000 employees.
In addition, he replaced the previous verification system, which was based on notoriety, with his own paid-for Twitter Blue scheme.
Mr. Spiro, according to Semafor, accused Meta in his letter of employing former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information.”
Andy Stone, a representative for Meta, responded to the story in a post on Threads.
He wrote, “To be clear: ‘No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not a thing’.”
The Instagram team at Meta developed Threads for “sharing text updates and joining public conversations”.
Posts may contain up to 500 characters, links, photographs, and videos of up to five minutes in length.
They are displayed in a timeline and can be liked, reposted, replied to, and shared with others. However, posts do not appear in chronological order, and there appears to be no means to change this.
Individuals can create a Threads account by using their Instagram credentials.
Usernames and verification transfer over, allowing Threads to rapidly assemble a massive roster of Instagram celebrities, athletes, politicians, sports clubs, news outlets, and brands.
Among the early adopters are Netflix and sensation Wars, chef Gordon Ramsay, pop sensation Shakira, actor Zac Efron, Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, NBA star Seth Curry, and, of course, Mark Zuckerberg himself.
Twitter and Meta are considering legal action after their CEOs, Mr. Musk and Mr. Zuckerberg, talked about a fight.
During a discussion of plans for Threads, Meta’s competitor to Twitter, Musk tweeted, “I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb” and “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.”
Zuckerberg fell for the ruse. “Send me the location,” he wrote on Instagram alongside a screenshot of Musk’s message.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) arena in Las Vegas, to which Musk responded simply, “Vegas Octagon”
Dana White, president of the UFC, also weighed in, telling TMZ: “Both men are dead serious about this.”