Twitter Warns Meta Not to Scrape User Data

Twitter has greeted the launch of Meta’s text-based app Threads with a letter from its lawyer.

Elon Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, wrote a letter to Meta on Wednesday (July 6) that accused the company of misappropriating trade secrets, alleged that Threads was built by former Twitter employees who were assigned to copy the social media app, and warned Meta not to scrape Twitter user data, CNBC reported Thursday (July 6).

Meta Communications Director Andy Stone posted on Threads, per the report, “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee. That’s just not a thing.”

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a tweet that the company is “often imitated.”

Threads was launched Wednesday in more than 100 countries and in iOS and Android versions.

Built by Meta’s Instagram team, the text-based app offers a space to share posts that are up to 500 characters long and include links, photos and videos up to five minutes long.

The app is not offered in the European Union (EU), though, because of data privacy concerns.

In the areas in which it is available, Threads gained 10 million sign-ups in its first seven hours, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying he envisions a much higher number.

“There should be a public conversations app with 1 billion-plus people on it,” Zuckerberg wrote on the new social media platform. “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”

Twitter has been on the move as well, with Yaccarino tweeting on May 13 — a week after being named CEO by Musk — that she is excited to “transform” the social media platform.

“I’ve long been inspired by your vision to create a brighter future,” Yaccarino said in the tweet, addressing Musk. “I’m excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together!”

On June 17, Musk said in response to a Twitter user’s tweet that the company’s plans include a video app for smart TVs.

That reply came two days after Musk and Yaccarino said in an investor presentation that the company plans to focus on video, creator and commerce partnerships.