Twitter Threatens Legal Action Against Meta Over New Threads App

Popular microblogging app, Twitter, has threatened to sue Meta platforms over its new Threads app.

This was revealed in a letter addressed to Meta Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg which was signed by a lawyer for Twitter, Alex Spiro.

In the letter, Spiro stated that Twitter has serious concerns that Meta has engaged in systemic and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.

He also claimed that Meta has poached numerous ex-Twitter employees and then tasked them to use their knowledge of Twitter trade secrets to develop Threads in a short period of time.

He added that Meta must now preserve all documents including but not limited to the recruitment, hiring, and onboarding of former Twitter employees as well as the development of the Threads app.

Twitter CEO, Linda Yaccarino, took to her Twitter handle to say that Twitter is a community built by its users which is often imitated but never duplicated.

“On Twitter, everyone’s voice matters. Whether you’re here to watch history unfold, discover REAL-TIME information all over the world, share your opinions, or learn about others, on Twitter YOU can be real.

“YOU built the Twitter community. And that’s irreplaceable. This is your public square.
We’re often imitated, but the Twitter community can never be duplicated,” she tweeted.

The letter from Twitter reads in part, “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.

“With that knowledge, Meta deliberately assigned these employees to develop, in a matter of months, Meta’s copycat ‘Threads’ app with the specific intent that they use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate the development of Meta’s competing app, 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.

“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.

“Further, Meta is expressly prohibited from engaging in any crawling or scraping of Twitter’s followers or following data. As set forth in Twitter’s Terms of Service, crawling any Twitter services – including, but not limited to, any Twitter websites, SMS, APIs, email notifications, applications, buttons, widgets, ads, and commerce services – is permissible only ‘if done in accordance with the provisions of the robots.txt file’ available at https://twitter.com/robots.txt.
The robots.txt file specifically disallows crawling of Twitter’s followers or following data.

“Scraping any Twitter services is expressly prohibited for any reason without Twitter’s prior consent. Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies or injunctive relief without further notice.

“Please consider this letter a formal notice that Meta must preserve any documents that could be relevant to a dispute between Twitter, Meta, and/or former Twitter employees who now work for Meta. That includes, but is not limited to, all documents related to the recruitment, hiring, and onboarding of these former Twitter employees, the development of Meta’s competing Threads app, and any communications between these former Twitter employees and any agent, representative, or employee or Meta.”