Elon Musk Threatens to Sue Threads App for Resembling Twitter
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VIVA – Twitter is considering to sue Meta with legal action over its new rival, the Threads app, according to US Media reports.
Threads, which launched on Wednesday, is similar to Twitter and has been touted by Meta bosses as a "friendly" alternative. Then, the owner of Twitter, Elon Musk said that "competition is good, no cheating".
More than 30 million people have signed up for the new app, according to Meta. That's less than a tenth of Twitter's roughly 350 million users, according to Statista.
According to SEC filings from 2013, it took Twitter four years to build the same number of users that Threads gained in a day, despite Twitter growing its user base from scratch, while Threads was able to capitalize on two billion pre-existing monthly users.
Moreover, the United States copyright law does not protect ideas, so for Twitter to win in court, it would have to prove that its intellectual property, such as programming code, was indeed taken.
Pemilik Twitter Elok Musk.
- Tech Crunch
An example of this was in 2012 when Meta secured a patent for "communicating news feeds", a system that displays all the latest posts when users use Facebook.
In a move first reported by news outlet Semafor, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday accusing Meta of "systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property" to create Threads.
Specifically, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro alleged that Meta had hired dozens of former Twitter employees who "had and continue to have access to Twitter trade secrets and other highly confidential information" that ultimately helped Meta develop the so-called Threads "copycat" app.
"Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using Twitter's trade secrets or other highly confidential information," the letter stated.
"Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek civil damages and injunctive relief without further notice," the statement continued.
Both Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have acknowledged competition over Threads, which is linked to Instagram but functions as a standalone app.
Both Meta and Twitter are known to have made significant layoffs this year, with Meta announcing in April that it would cut its headcount by around 10,000 people. Twitter also fired most of its 7,500 employees, up to 80%, in a wave of layoffs following the takeover by Musk last October.
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