X Corps., the company owned by Elon Musk, has levelled accusations of plagiarism against Meta, formerly known as Facebook, over its newly launched app, Threads.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that everything from the heart-shaped symbol used to “like” a post to the circle of arrows indicating the repost feature appears similar to those of Twitter.
Twitter is further alleging that Meta poached former Twitter employees to develop this new platform.
Since its recent debut, Threads, a text-based platform resembling Twitter, has already garnered over 30 million sign-ups. Today, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu joined the platform, wasting no time making his presence known by sharing an inaugural video as the country’s leader. The president captioned the video, “My fellow Tailors, Idan has landed.”
Shortly after the launch of Threads, Twitter’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, sent a letter to Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, accusing the social media giant of unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.
The letter, shared online, emphasises Twitter’s intention to rigorously protect its intellectual property rights and demands that Meta cease using any Twitter trade secrets or highly confidential information.
Spiro alleges that Meta hired numerous former Twitter employees who had access to Twitter’s trade secrets and confidential information. According to the letter, these employees were tasked with developing a copycat app that utilised Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property to expedite the development of Meta’s competing app. This alleged action is claimed to violate both state and federal laws, as well as the ongoing obligations these employees have to Twitter.
While Elon Musk has remained silent on the launch of Threads, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino took the opportunity to throw shade at the new platform. In a tweet, Yaccarino emphasised that while Twitter may be imitated, the vibrant Twitter community can never be duplicated.
Meta’s Threads app is just one of the several Twitter competitors that have gained momentum since Elon Musk assumed control of Twitter last year. His policies and strategies have been widely viewed as capitalistic in nature.
