Twitter May Be Suing Threads Already, According To Recent Report

Right as Threads was popping bottles celebrating the tens of millions users it got within just hours of launch, Twitter has apparently come to rain on its parade, according to a recent report from Semafor.

Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro wrote to Mark Zuckerberg saying Meta had engaged in "systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property." The letter threatens legal action against Threads if the concerns are not addressed.

According to Semafor, the letter read:

Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information. Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.

Spiro included an accusation that Meta had hired multiple former Twitter employees in order to build Threads, which is a "violation of both state and federal law." A source from Meta firmly denied to Semafor that anyone on the Threads team used to work for Twitter. The full letter can be read here.

It's unclear if anything will come from the threatened lawsuit, but according to Semafor's Max Tani, it is a sign that Elon Musk and Twitter heads are taking the threat of Threads seriously (they did not levy accusations at fellow recent Twitter competitor Bluesky, for example, which still only has tens of thousands of users due in part to its "invite-only" beta period policy).

If anything, the lawsuit will make the rumored cage match between Musk and Zuckerberg all the more interesting.