Skip to main content

Twitter goes after ‘copycat’ app Threads

With Meta’s new Threads app having picked up 30 million users on its first day, it’s little wonder Twitter is upset.

In fact, it’s so put out by Meta’s very similar app that it’s now threatening to sue the company, accusing it of violating Twitter’s intellectual property rights.

Recommended Videos

In a letter from Twitter to Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg that was first published by the news site Semafor, Musk lawyer Alex Spiro said that Twitter has “serious concerns that Meta has engaged in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”

It claimed that some of the “dozens” of former Twitter employees who now work for Meta have “improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices,” and that “Meta deliberately assigned these employees to develop, in a matter of months, Meta’s ‘copycat’ Threads app with 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.”

Spiro said Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demanded that Meta take “immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information.”

The letter added that Twitter has the right to take legal action “without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.” But whether Twitter follows through with its threat remains to be seen.

Meta communications director Andy Stone hit back at the letter’s claims, saying on a Threads post that: “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.”

Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in October for $44 billion, tweeted on Thursday: “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”

Recently appointed Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino also got involved, tweeting: “We’re often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.”

Asked on Threads if the new app could be more successful than Twitter, Zuckerberg said on Thursday: “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion-plus people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”

Threads is off to a flying start for a couple of reasons. First, many Twitter users are upset by the constant disruptions and other issues that have plagued the platform since Musk bought the company last year. And second, Meta has built Threads with a direct link to the hugely popular Instagram app, making it easy to sign up and build an instant community.

Fancy giving Threads a go? Here’s how to get started.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Elon Musk’s big bright ‘X’ sign removed following complaints
The sign atop X Corp's building in San Francisco.

Elon Musk's big bright “X” sign has been removed from the top of X Corp’s headquarters in downtown San Francisco.

The installation, which formed part of efforts by Musk to rebrand Twitter as X, appeared on top of the building on Friday, just a few days after the company officially unveiled the new X logo to replace Twitter’s iconic blue bird.

Read more
Why is Twitter called X now? Here’s everything you need to know
A digital image of Elon Musk in front of a stylized background with the Twitter logo repeating.

Twitter is now called X, and it's causing some commotion. Since launching 17 years ago (nearly to the date at the time of writing), Twitter has been adorned with a blue bird. Now, it's a rather cryptic X brought on by the new owner of the social media platform, Elon Musk. Even though elements of the old Twitter remain, the iOS and Android apps have switched over to the new name, including the transition from "tweets" to "posts."

How did we get here? We've rounded up the order of events that took place leading to Twitter's massive rebrand to X, as well as how that relates to Elon Musk's entrepreneurial history and the legal troubles that could stem from the new name.
Why is Twitter called X now?

Read more
Threads has lost half its users, according to Meta chief Zuckerberg
Instagram Threads app.

Meta’s Threads app looks set for an uphill climb if it’s ever to take the microblogging crown from Twitter, which is currently being rebranded as X.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently told employees that despite its impressive start in early July when around 100 million people activated a Threads account in its first five days of availability, more than half of those users have stopped checking in.

Read more