NEW YORK, USA – A cease-and-desist letter has been sent to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg from Elon Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro.
The letter alleges that Meta has employed “dozens of former Twitter employees” to develop a rival social media app named ‘Threads’, which was launched recently.
The letter claims that these employees, some of whom were among those laid off during Musk’s significant downsizing of Twitter, still have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and confidential information and have “improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices.”
The letter reads: “Based on recent reports regarding your recently launched ‘Threads’ app, 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.”
Andy Stone, Meta’s communications director, on Friday, July 7, 2023, denied the allegations, stating that “no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee.”
This controversy arises following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, during which he significantly reduced the company’s size by laying off around 80% of the staff – approximately 6,500 employees.
Musk described this action as one of the hardest decisions he’s made, labeling it as “not fun at all. Painful.”
During Musk’s reign, Twitter has seen a series of controversial changes, including relaxed content moderation rules and a paid verification process.
Threads, the newly launched app by Meta, gained approximately 30 million sign-ups within a day of its official launch, according to Zuckerberg.
Reports suggest that turmoil at Twitter under Musk’s leadership has been seen by Meta employees as an opportunity to develop a competitor app.
