Twitter Threatens Legal Action Against Meta Over Alleged ‘Copycat’ Behavior

Twitter parent company X Corp. is threatening legal action against Meta, a Silicon Valley-based social media company, over its new Threads app. According to a letter posted by Semafor, an attorney for Twitter has accused Meta of “copycat” behavior, claiming that the company allegedly hired former Twitter employees and used the microblogging platform’s trade secrets to develop Threads.

The letter, written by attorney Alex Spiro of law firm Quinn Emanuel, stated that Meta had “engaged in systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property” by poaching its employees. Threads, which debuted on Wednesday, has already gained millions of users.

However, Meta communications director Andy Stone has denied the allegations, writing on Threads, “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.” Twitter has yet to comment on the letter.

The legal dispute between Twitter and Meta is the latest example of Silicon Valley companies battling over intellectual property. In the past, companies such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft have all been involved in similar disputes. It remains to be seen how this particular dispute will be resolved.