In a recent development that has sent shockwaves through the tech industry, Twitter, Inc. (“Twitter”) has reportedly initiated legal action against Meta Platforms (“Meta”) over allegations of trade secret misappropriation regarding Meta’s newly launched “Threads” app. The allegations stem from Meta’s hiring of numerous former Twitter employees, raising concerns about the misuse of confidential information and intellectual property.

The letter, addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Meta Platforms, was sent on behalf of X Corp., the successor in interest to Twitter. Penned by Alex Spiro from Quinn Emanuel Trial Lawyers, a renowned Silicon Valley law firm, the letter expresses Twitter’s serious concerns regarding Meta’s actions. It accuses Meta of engaging in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.

According to the letter, over the past year, Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employees who previously had access to Twitter’s highly confidential information and trade secrets. It is alleged that these employees, despite owing ongoing obligations to Twitter, retained Twitter documents and electronic devices.

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Twitter further claims that Meta intentionally assigned these former employees to develop Meta’s “Threads” app within a remarkably short timeframe, with the specific intent of using Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property to expedite the development of Meta’s competing app. These actions, if proven true, would be in violation of state and federal laws, as well as the former employees’ obligations to Twitter.

Twitter is determined to uphold its intellectual property rights and has demanded that Meta immediately cease utilizing any Twitter trade secrets or highly confidential information. The letter emphasizes that Twitter reserves all rights, including the pursuit of civil remedies and injunctive relief, without further notice, to prevent any additional retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.

In addition to the allegations of trade secret misappropriation, the letter also addresses Meta’s crawling and scraping of Twitter’s followers or following data.

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Twitter’s Terms of Service explicitly state that crawling any Twitter services, including websites, SMS, APIs, email notifications, applications, buttons, widgets, ads, and commerce services, is permissible only if done in accordance with the provisions of the robots.txt file. However, the robots.txt file specifically disallows crawling of Twitter’s followers or following data.

Any scraping of Twitter services without prior consent from Twitter is expressly prohibited. Twitter retains all rights to pursue civil remedies or injunctive relief without further notice in cases of non-compliance.

The letter concludes by notifying Meta of its obligation to preserve any documents that could be relevant to the potential dispute between Twitter, Meta, and the former Twitter employees now employed by Meta. This includes all documents related to the recruitment, hiring, and onboarding of these individuals, the development of Meta’s competing Threads app, and any communications between the former Twitter employees and Meta’s agents, representatives, or employees.

The legal battle between Twitter and Meta has garnered significant attention as it unfolds. The involvement of former Twitter employees, coupled with the allegations of trade secret misappropriation, adds a contentious dimension to the dispute. As both companies prepare to navigate the complex legal landscape, the outcome of this case could have far-reaching implications for the protection of intellectual property rights within the tech industry.

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As the situation develops, it remains to be seen how Meta will respond to Twitter’s allegations and what steps will be taken to address the dispute. The outcome of this legal battle will undoubtedly influence the landscape and set important precedents for the industry as a whole.