ICYMI, Elon Musk spent $44 billion in 2022 to purchase Twitter and fired a lot of the firm. Lots has occurred since then, to say the least. Now Twitter is threatening to sue Meta for supposedly hiring workers that Musk fired and constructing a aggressive platform.
Semafor has the scoop on the letter accusing Meta is stealing Twitter’s concept:
Simply hours later, a lawyer for Twitter, Alex Spiro, despatched a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg accusing the corporate of partaking in “systematic, willful, and illegal misappropriation of Twitter’s commerce secrets and techniques and different mental property.”
“Twitter intends to strictly implement its mental property rights, and calls for that Meta take speedy steps to cease utilizing any Twitter commerce secrets and techniques or different extremely confidential data,” Spiro wrote in a letter obtained completely by Semafor.
The lawyer goes on to accuse Meta of giving jobs to folks Twitter put out of labor:
Spiro accused Meta of hiring dozens of former Twitter workers who “had and proceed to have entry to Twitter’s commerce secrets and techniques and different extremely confidential data.”
He additionally alleged that Meta assigned these workers to develop “Meta’s copycat ‘Threads’ app with the particular intent that they use Twitter’s commerce secrets and techniques and different mental property with the intention to speed up the event of Meta’s competing app, in violation of each state and federal legislation in addition to these workers’ ongoing obligations to Twitter.”
For its half, Meta is unofficially denying that any fired Twitter workers have labored on Threads:
A Meta supply advised Semafor that Twitter’s accusations are baseless.
“Nobody on the Threads engineering crew is a former Twitter worker — that’s simply not a factor,” the supply mentioned.
It must be famous that Mastodon, BlueSky, Publish, and so on. by no means sparked threats of authorized motion although they use the identical microblogging interface.
9to5Mac’s Take
In actuality, there have been a dozen Twitter options which have popped up for the reason that richest man on this planet began operating Twitter like he’s broke. Most notably, Mastodon has been a spot of refuge for the tech group that used to dwell on Twitter – and that began lengthy earlier than Musk tried to sue his means out of his settlement to purchase Twitter.
Extra not too long ago, the backyard of microblogging providers has blossomed with platforms centered on information, crypto, and gossip. The one distinction with Threads is that Fb and Instagram are making no effort to fake they aren’t providing an alternative choice to a gaggle of customers sad with Twitter.
And except Musk personally funds a lawsuit towards Meta, suing over Threads doesn’t seem to be a clever use of no matter funds Twitter can discover. Perhaps Musk can kickstart litigation by solely exhibiting tweets to customers who financially again the price of the lawsuit.
At any charge, the cease-and-desist letter is the very best proof that Threads could possibly be an actual menace to Twitter. You don’t get spooked in any other case.
FTC: We use earnings incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. Extra.
