Microblogging site Twitter has warned of legal action against Meta Platforms for launching its new rival Threads. Meta launched Threads on Wednesday to compete with Elon Musk’s Twitter. It has been introduced as a separate app but users of Meta’s photo and video sharing service Instagram can log in using their details.

The Semafor report quoted a letter sent by Twitter’s lawyer Alex Spiro to Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, stating that “Twitter intends to vigorously enforce its intellectual property rights and demands that Meta’s use of Twitter’s trade secrets or other confidential information must be stopped immediately.” Reuters requests for comment on Meta and Spiro went unanswered. Meta also controls the social media site Facebook.

Analysts say that due to Threads being connected to Instagram, it can get the benefit of a large number of pre-existing users and advertising system. This may reduce the revenue from Twitter’s advertising. After Musk’s takeover of Twitter late last year, some big companies stopped advertising on Twitter. Musk had said that the reduction in advertisements had a big impact on Twitter’s revenue. Apart from this, Musk had made major changes in the company. They had laid off almost half the staff. After this, after banning the Twitter accounts of some journalists, he had to face strong opposition. Regarding this, the European Union (EU) had warned of restrictions on Twitter. However, Musk later withdrew this decision.

Instagram has over two billion monthly active users. This can make Threads easier. Within a few hours of its launch, more than four crore users have signed in. However, Threads does not have as many features as Twitter. Unlike Twitter, it does not have hashtag and keyword search functions. Apart from this, the facility of direct messaging has also not been made available.