Twitter has reportedly threatened to sue Meta over Threads


Threads, Meta's response to Twitter, has been live for just about 24 hours and it's already stirring up some legal trouble.
Per reports from both ABC News and Semafor, Twitter's legal team has allegedly accused Meta of "deliberately" copying the Twitter application and poaching former Twitter employees to do so.
"Over the past year, Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employees," many of which have "improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices" and "continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information," reads a cease-and-desist letter from lawyer Alex Spiro.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"With that knowledge," Spiro continued, "Meta deliberately assigned these employees to develop, in a matter of months, Meta's copycat 'Threads' apps with the specific intent that they use Twitter's trade secrets ... in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees' ongoing obligations to Twitter."
"Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information," the letter went on. Twitter "reserves all rights," including "the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief."
A Meta source denied the Twitter team's accusations. "No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee," the source told Semafor. "That's just not a thing."
And if the threat of legal action is raining on Meta's parade, the company is certainly not letting it show. On Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Threads had amassed about 30 million sign-ups as of that morning. "Feels like the beginning of something special," he wrote on the platform, "but we've got a lot of work ahead to build out the app."
Perhaps adding insult to injury, Zuckerberg also on Thursday posted what Semafor quantified as his first tweet in 11 years. Hey Elon, how about that fight?
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.
-
The battle over Jamaican rum
Under The Radar The spirit that defines the Caribbean is at the middle of a legal fight
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Do student loans affect a credit score?
the explainer Repaying loans on time will strengthen your credit — but paying late will hurt it
By Becca Stanek, The Week US Published
-
Cherry blossom season: Washington diners’ happy time
feature The five best spots to enjoy the festivities
By The Week US Published
-
What does an ex-executive's new memoir reveal about Meta's free speech pivot?
Today's Big Question 'Careless People' says Facebook was ready to do China censorship
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
What's Mark Zuckerberg's net worth?
In Depth The Meta magnate's products are a part of billions of lives
By David Faris Last updated
-
Space-age living: The race for robot servants
Feature Meta and Apple compete to bring humanoid robots to market
By The Week US Published
-
Apple pledges $500B in US spending over 4 years
Speed Read This is a win for Trump, who has pushed to move manufacturing back to the US
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Microsoft unveils quantum computing breakthrough
Speed Read Researchers say this advance could lead to faster and more powerful computers
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Big tech's big pivot
Opinion How Silicon Valley's corporate titans learned to love Trump
By Theunis Bates Published
-
TikTok's fate uncertain as weekend deadline looms
Speed Read The popular app is set to be banned in the U.S. starting Sunday
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Meta's right turn on red: Zuckerberg turns toward MAGA
Talking Points Zuckerberg is abandoning fact-checkers to embrace "free speech," a familiar refrain for Trump's cohort
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published