Just one day after releasing a new rival app, Twitter vowed to sue Meta.
Within 24 hours of going live, Threads had 30 million new users sign up.
But now, Twitter’s CEO Elon Musk has warned Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg via his attorney Alex Spiro that he may face legal repercussions in a letter.
‘Twitter has strong concerns that Meta Platforms (Meta) has engaged in systematic, deliberate, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property,’ the letter said.
It claims that Meta has hired ‘dozens’ of former Twitter employees and that they have access to the company’s ‘trade secrets’.
Mr Spiro also says that many of these employees have ‘improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices’, reports Semafor.
He wrote: ‘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.’
However, a source at Meta reportedly told Semafor that Twitter’s accusations are baseless.
They said: ‘No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not a thing.’
Mr Spiro warned: ‘Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies or injunctive relief without further notice.’
Threads is trying to compete with Twitter by taking advantage of Instagram’s billions of users.
Since Mr Musk’s takeover of the social media platform, Twitter has seen competition from Mastodon and Bluesky among others.
The Threads user interface, however, has a striking resemblance to the microblogging platform.
Mr Zuckerberg only announced the new app on Tuesday, calling it an app built for ‘sharing with text’.
At first glance, the app features an unmistakable Twitter-like feed in Instagram’s signature design.
‘Threads offers a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations,’ said Mr Zuckerberg in an announcement.
With Threads, Meta is also trying its hand at a ‘decentralised’ approach like many Twitter alternatives.
Mr Zuckerberg added: ‘We are working toward making Threads compatible with the open, interoperable social networks that we believe can shape the future of the internet.’
Here’s what happened when we tried out Threads for the first time today.