In a recent social media post, Elon Musk, the executive chairman of Twitter, has accused Meta, formerly known as Facebook, of “cheating” in relation to the launch of its new text-based social network, Threads. Threads, which bears a striking resemblance to Twitter, has been the center of controversy since its release.
Competition is fine, cheating is not
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
Musk, known for his candid remarks, stated on a social media post that while he welcomes competition, he will not stand for unfair practices.
The billionaire’s remarks come in the wake of a letter sent by Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, threatening legal action.
In the letter dated July 5, Spiro expressed Twitter’s intent to “strictly enforce its intellectual property rights.” The company demanded that Meta cease using Twitter’s trade secrets immediately.
According to Spiro’s letter, Meta hired former Twitter employees who had access to confidential information, including Twitter’s trade secrets. Spiro alleged that Meta assigned these employees to develop a “copycat” application called Threads, asserting that the company used Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property to expedite the development of the rival app.
The letter also serves as a formal notice for Meta to preserve any documents relevant to a potential dispute between Twitter and Meta, as well as any information related to former Twitter employees now working for Meta.
Spiro further emphasized that Meta is prohibited from crawling or scraping Twitter’s followers or following data without prior consent from the company.
On July 5, Meta’s new text-based social network, Threads, was released in 100 countries. The app was rolled out days after Twitter’s rate limit debacle when the social platform temporarily limited the number of posts users could read.
The timing of Threads’ release has added fuel to the fire in this escalating feud between two of the tech world’s most influential figures.