Twitter is threatening to sue Meta over concerns about its new Threads app, according to a letter obtained by Semafor. In the letter, which is addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro argues that Meta used Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property to build Threads.
Spiro, who is also Elon Musk’s personal lawyer and a partner at the Quinn Emanuel law firm, claims that Meta hired “dozens” of ex-Twitter employees to develop Threads, which wouldn’t be all that surprising given just how many people were fired following Musk’s takeover.
But according to Twitter, many of these former workers still have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other confidential information. Twitter alleges that Meta took advantage of this and tasked these employees with developing a “copycat” app “in violation of both state and federal law.”
As a result, Twitter is threatening legal action in the form of “both civil remedies and injunctive relief.” It also “demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information” and says Meta isn’t allowed to crawl or scrape Twitter’s data, either.
Meta responded to Twitter’s letter in a post on Threads, with communications director Andy Stone stating, “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.” Meta doesn’t seem all too concerned about this, and that may be because Twitter isn’t all that shy about threatening legal action. In May, Twitter accused Microsoft of abusing the company’s API through integrations with some of its products.
Meta launched Threads on Wednesday night, with celebrities and brands the first to get on board. Less than 24 hours since the app’s launch, Threads has garnered over 30 million registered users, while internal data obtained by The Verge’s Alex Heath indicates that users have already made over 95 million threads.
“Competition is fine, cheating is not,” Musk said in a reply to a post about the letter on Twitter.
Zuck strikes me as lawful evil. What you see is what you get, and he will comply with the law and all agreements to their fullest extent and make as much money as possible within that framework. Stability is good because it's good for profits. Equality and equity are good because they make you money; as a corollary, bigotry is bad because it loses you money. Sustainability is good because the public loves it so you make more money. Zuck will flip on a dime if it makes him more money and nothing is personal, just business.
Musk is chaotic evil. It isn't enough that he's the richest man on earth because he was born with an emerald spoon on his mouth, he wants more. He wants to be adored and loved and respected. And he will punish anyone who questions or stands in the way of that. He spreads bigotry and hate, promotes conspiracy theories and shitty politicians, and demeans the average working person and gaslights them. He will have his kingdom and everyone will know it and praise it, even if it's smoldering ashes.
It also goes along with their relative intelligences. Musk doesn't know shit and the businesses that he's bought succeed in spite of himself. He'll chase short term gains and figure out how to handle the consequences later. Zuck provided some technical basis for his product and managed it maliciously, but managed it well. He plays the long game, and he picks what'll make him the most money overall.
None of this is meant to praise nor extol either of them. There's a funny comic panel where the Joker realizes someone he's been working with isn't just cosplaying, but is an actual Nazi. He's disgusted and has an "even evil has standards" moment. So that's who you've got on comparison here -- the Joker who draws the line at Nazis, or Nazis.