Featured Image Credit: JOEL SAGET/AFP / Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Topics: Elon Musk, Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg, Social Media, Twitter, Threads
Ben Thompson
Topics: Elon Musk, Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg, Social Media, Twitter, Threads
Elon Musk has responded to reports that Twitter will be suing Meta over the recently launched Threads app.
Twitter's lawyer, Alex Spiro, sent a letter to Meta in which they threatened legal action, news outlet Semafor reported.
Spiro wrote: "It demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information."
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The letter also states that Meta has in the past year hired 'dozens of former Twitter employees' who have 'ongoing obligations' to the social media site but are claimed to have 'improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices'.
Spiro claims that Meta 'deliberately assigned' these former Twitter employees to make Threads, which they call a 'copycat'.
Meta launched Threads on Wednesday night (6 July) and the new app had gained over 30 million users by Thursday afternoon, according to Meta.
The app is linked to a user's Instagram account and they will carry over their usernames and verification.
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It has been branded Meta's answer to Twitter, which has undergone significant changes since Musk took charge last year.
The South African tycoon fired half of Twitter's 8,000 strong workforce following his $44 billion (£34bn) takeover.
He also scrapped the previous verification system - based on notability - and a paid-for Twitter Blue scheme.
The most recent change which caused outrage was the announcement that users who didn't pay for the app would be limited in how many tweets they could read a day.
So it's understandable why Meta launching an alternative to Twitter would get many people's interest.
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Responding to a tweet about the controversy, Musk wrote: "Competition is fine, cheating is not."
This is just the latest saga in the rivalry between Musk and Zuckerberg, who have been teasing that they will face down each other in a physical fight.
Musk announced on Twitter that he'd be 'up for a cage fight' if his opponent agreed.
When Zuckerberg indicated he would be, it seemed like an agreement had been reached.
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UFC president Dana White has also come out and said that the two are 'dead serious' about taking each other on.
White said: "Both guys are absolutely dead serious about this. They both want to do it. Mark Zuckerberg hit me up first and said, 'Is he serious?'
"And I said, 'I don't know, let me ask him,' and I asked him and he said, ''yeah, I'm dead serious'. It would break all pay-per-view records."
Responding to the controversy on Threads, Meta's spokesperson Andy Stone wrote: "No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing."
LADbible have reached out to Meta and Twitter comment, and Twitter's press office responded with its customary automated poop emoji.