Twitter Threatens to Sue Meta Over Threads

Twitter is reportedly threatening to take legal action against Meta after the Facebook and Instagram parent company launched Threads, a new text-based social media network.

The Elon Musk-owned Twitter accused Meta of poaching Twitter employees for what it calls a "copycat" app, according to a cease-and-desist letter obtained by media site Semafor.

In the letter, Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Twitter, accused Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg of engaging in "systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property," according to the outlet, which first reported on the letter. CNN also confirmed the letter's authenticity. 

"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," Spiro wrote in the letter, reports The Guardian. 

When reached for comment, Meta referred PEOPLE to Meta spokesperson Andy Stone's response on Threads. "No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing," Stone wrote.

In its letter, Twitter claimed Meta hired "dozens" of former Twitter employees who "had and continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information." Twitter alleges the employees have "ongoing obligations" to Twitter and "improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices." Meta "deliberately" assigned these employees to develop Threads "with the specific intent that they use Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate" the development of Threads, the letter claims.

According to Twitter, Meta allegedly violated both state and federal laws as well as the suspected employees' ongoing obligations to Twitter. The company reportedly "intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights."

Musk's company claims it "reserves all rights" to seek "civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.”

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"Competition is fine, cheating is not," Musk, 52, tweeted after reports of the letter were published. Spiro did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Meta, which is also the parent company of WhatsApp, launched Threads on Wednesday, months after rumors that the company was developing the platform. Threads users can post messages with up to 500 characters and include photos and videos up to five minutes long.

More than 30 million users signed up for Threads as of Thursday morning, Zuckerberg, 39, wrote in a verified Threads post.

“Meet Threads, an open and friendly public space for conversation. ” Zuckerberg wrote on Instagram. “Our vision is to take the best parts of Instagram and create a new experience for text, ideas, and discussing what's on your mind. I think the world needs this kind of friendly community.”

After Threads launched, Zuckerberg posted his first tweet since 2012, sharing a meme of two Spider-Man characters pointing at each other.