Twitter threatens legal action against Meta's Threads app

Less than 24 hours after the launch of Meta's Threads app, Twitter is threatening to sue the company, accusing it of misappropriating trade secrets and poaching former Twitter employees.

In a letter sent by Twitter's lawyer, Alex Spiro, to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter demanded immediate action to stop the use of its trade secrets and confidential information. The letter alleges that Meta hired "dozens" of former Twitter employees who had access to Twitter's trade secrets and intellectual property.

These employees were allegedly tasked with developing a competing app using Twitter's proprietary information, in violation of state and federal laws, as well as their ongoing obligations to Twitter.

Meta's communications director, Andy Stone, responded to Twitter's claims, denying that any Threads engineering team members were former Twitter employees. Stone stated on Threads that such claims were unfounded.

Elon Musk, the owner of Meta, remained silent on the launch until now.

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino also stepped in, throwing shade at Threads in her tweet.

While other Twitter competitors like Mastodon and Bluesky have gained attention, Threads has seen rapid adoption rates.