As Meta’s New ‘Threads’ App Gains 30 Million Users, Twitter Threatens To Sue Over ‘Copycat’

Mark Zuckerberg and Beta launched the new ‘Threads’ app this Thursday, July 6, already picking up an estimated 30 million users on its first day.

The new text-based chat app went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at 2300 GMT on Wednesday 5. Meta’s CEO subsequently wrote on his official Threads account earlier today: ’10 million sign-ups in seven hours’.

‘It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully, we will’, he added, according to insiderpaper.com.

A Twitter lawyer wrote a letter to Meta

Elon Musk was apparently not taking it lying down though. According to an exclusive scoop by Max Tani at Semafor, the Twitter boss has allegedly threatened to sue his rival, in a letter obtained by the news outlet.

The document, allegedly written by Twitter’s lawyer Alex Spiro read: ‘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 continued: ‘Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta’.

Meta allegedly poached former Twitter employees

Meta has allegedly been accused by Spiro of poaching former Twitter employees who would have all had inside knowledge of the workings of their former employer’s platform.

These workers: ‘had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information’. Meta developed a ‘copycat’ app that violates both US state and federal law the lawyer pointed out. The former Musk employees also had ‘ongoing obligations to Twitter’, he claimed.

Spiro also apparently said that Meta’s creation of the new app was a: ‘systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property’.

As reported by insiderpaper.com, several big showbiz names and media outlets have already signed up for Threads. These included The Economist and The Washington Post, along with Shakira, Hugh Jackman, and Jennifer Lopez.

Another outlet mentioned Kim Kardashian, Rylan Clark and even the Dalai Lama downloading the app. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is said to have joined, along with Khloe Kardashian, Jessica Chastain, Leigh-Anne Pinnock from Little Mix, Paris Hilton, and many more.