Twitter threatens to sue Facebook proprietor Meta over new Threads platform – report

Twitter has threatened to sue Facebook proprietor Meta over its new Threads platform, it has been reported.

The firm has written to Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg to say it “intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, according to news site Semafor, citing a letter from Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro.

“It demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” Mr Spiro reportedly wrote within the letter.

Meta launched its new Threads platform earlier on Thursday. The tech large, which additionally owns Instagram and WhatsApp, claimed it had already had 30 million sign-ups.

Threads has been billed by specialists as Meta’s reply to Twitter – which has confronted a interval of upheaval since Elon Musk accomplished his $44bn takeover in October final 12 months.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief sacked half of Twitter’s 8,000 staff following his buyout.

He additionally eliminated the earlier verification system – primarily based on notability – and changed it together with his personal paid-for Twitter Blue scheme.

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According to Semafor, Mr Spiro, in his letter, accused Meta of hiring former Twitter workers who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information”.

Built by the Meta’s Instagram workforce, Threads is billed as a house for “sharing text updates and joining public conversations”.

Posts may be as much as 500 characters lengthy and embrace hyperlinks, photographs, and movies of as much as 5 minutes.

They seem in a timeline, and posts may be favored, reposted, replied to, and shared elsewhere. But posts don’t seem chronologically, and there appears to be no strategy to make it so.

People can use their present Instagram credentials to create a Threads account.

Usernames and verification carry over, that means Threads might rapidly assemble an enormous line-up of celebrities, athletes, politicians, sports golf equipment, information shops (together with Sky News) and types that already use Instagram.

Early adopters embrace accounts for Netflix and Star Wars, chef Gordon Ramsay, pop star Shakira, actor Zac Efron, Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, NBA star Seth Curry, and – naturally – Mark Zuckerberg himself.

The risk of authorized motion between Twitter and Meta comes after their respective CEOs, Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg, talked-up the prospect of a cage battle between them.

Amid a dialogue about plans for Threads, Meta’s rival Twitter app, Musk tweeted, “I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb”, and adopted up with “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.”

Zuckerberg took the bait. “Send me location” he posted on Instagram alongside a screenshot of Musk’s message.

Musk responded merely: “Vegas Octagon”, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) enviornment in Las Vegas.

UFC president Dana White additionally weighed in, telling TMZ: “Both guys are absolutely dead serious about this.”