Twitter threatens legal action over Meta's Threads app

Social media platform Twitter warned rival Meta that intended to protect its intellectual property rights following the latter's debut of a Threads, a Twitter competitor that is linked to Meta's other platforms.

Twitter has raised concerns that Meta may have improperly used its intellectual property and issued the firm a cease-and-desist letter on Thursday.

"Twitter has serious concerns that Meta Platforms ('Meta') has engaged in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property," the letter reads. Twitter went on to note that Meta had hired many of the company's former employees and tasked them with creating the "copycat" threads app.

"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," it warned.

Meta, which also owns Instagram and Facebook, debuted Threads on Wednesday. The microblogging platform is comparable to Twitter but offers users a larger character limit.

Upon taking over Twitter, Musk implemented dramatic staffing cuts and upended the company's content moderation policies to permit the posting of previously disfavored content. He has since made many technical changes to the app, prompting mixed responses.

Meta's launch of Threads appeared to be an attempt to capitalize on user frustrations with Twitter.

Musk and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who controls Meta, have openly clashed in recent weeks, with the pair seemingly agreeing to a cage match that may or may not actually take place.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.