Twitter threatening to sue Meta over Threads app, report says

Letter from Twitter lawyer accuses Meta of creating 'copycat' social media platform

Threads has climbed to the top of the charts in Apple's App Store, with more than 30 million sign-ups since its launch on Wednesday. EPA

Twitter has threatened to sue Meta over the social media company's newest Threads app, Semafor reported on Thursday.

It quoted a letter from lawyer Alex Spiro, dated July 5, that says Elon Musk's X Corp has “serious concerns” that Mark Zuckerberg's company has engaged in “systemic, wilful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property”.

"Competition is fine, cheating is not," Mr Musk said in reply to a tweet linking to the letter.

Threads has climbed to the top of the charts in Apple's App Store, with more than 30 million sign-ups since its Wednesday launch, Mr Zuckerberg said in a post on the new social media platform.

His app is regarded as Twitter's most potent rival, above competing apps such as Bluesky and Mastodon.

“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 classified information,” Mr Spiro wrote.

The letter also alleged that Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employers who “had and continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information”.

It claimed that the former employees had been hired with the aim of creating a “copycat” app.

Meta did not immediately return The National's request for comment. The National's request for comment from Twitter was answered with an emoji.