Twitter considers legal action over Threads app

Twitter owner Elon Musk has said that "competition is fine, cheating is not" a day after Meta launched its fast-growing rival Threads.

Threads, which was launched to millions on Wednesday, is similar to Twitter and has been pitched by Meta bosses as a "friendly" alternative.

Twitter is weighing legal action over the app, citing intellectual property rights, according to a legal letter.

Meta has denied some of the letter's claims.

More than 30 million people have signed up for Threads, according to Meta, which has stated an aim to achieve over one billion users.

The architecture of Threads is similar to Twitter, BBC News technology reporter James Clayton noted. He said the news feed and the reposting were incredibly familiar.

In a move first reported by news outlet Semafor, Twitter attorney Alex Spiro sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday accusing Meta of "systematic, wilful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property" to create Threads.

Specifically, Mr Spiro alleged that Meta hired dozens of former Twitter employees who "had and continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information" that ultimately helped Meta develop what he termed 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," the letter says.

"Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice".

BBC News, which has seen a copy of the letter, has reached out to both Meta and Twitter for comment on its claims.

Mr Musk said that "competition is fine, cheating is not" in response to a post on Twitter that referred to the legal letter.

On Threads, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone posted that "no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee - that's just not a thing".

Both Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg have acknowledged the rivalry over Threads, which is linked to Instagram but works as a standalone app.

As it launched in 100 countries, Mr Zuckerberg broke more than 11 years of silence on Twitter to post a highly popular meme of two nearly identical Spider-Man figures pointing at each other, indicating a stand-off.

Shortly after, and as the word "Threads" trended globally on his platform, Mr Musk said: "It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram."

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a tweet on Thursday that while the platform, which has previously reported about 260 million monthly users, is "often imitated" it "can never be duplicated".

Both Meta and Twitter have undertaken significant layoffs this year, with Meta announcing in April that it would cut staff levels by approximately 10,000.

Twitter lost about half of its 7,500 employees in waves of redundancies following Mr Musk's takeover last October.