July 6, 2023, 4:08 pm | Read time: 5 minutes
Meta aims to establish its own short messaging service with “Threads.” This service is in direct competition with Elon Musk’s Twitter. Now, the service has launched in many countries.
Since Monday, July 3, 2023, the “Threads” app has appeared in app stores for Android and iOS, including in the U.S. The app description states: “Threads brings communities together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to the trends of tomorrow.” A closer look at the app reveals a mix of Twitter and Instagram. And that seems to be exactly what Meta, the company behind the app, intends.
Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Compete with Twitter
Since the Twitter acquisition by Elon Musk in fall 2022, a lot has changed at the short messaging service. The tech billionaire has not only overhauled the company personnel-wise, laying off numerous employees. He also introduced a subscription model for Twitter with the blue checkmarks. The tone on the platform has also changed. This is mainly because Musk believes that Twitter restricted its users’ freedom of speech by deleting or moderating certain tweets; he thus rules out such an approach. As a result, hate speech and tweets with politically extreme positions have increased since Musk’s takeover, according to industry observers.
Additionally, the use of Tweetdeck, a software for managing user accounts that professional Twitter users primarily rely on, will only be available with a Twitter Blue subscription in the future. Further restrictions could follow. At the beginning of July, Twitter set a temporary limit on how many tweets users can view in a day. The limit for non-paying users was gradually raised to 1,000 tweets. However, to see more, one must subscribe to Twitter Blue.
All this has already led to some discontent, especially as the restructuring has also led to more technical outages on the platform. New Twitter competitors like Mastodon are already trying to capitalize on this, albeit with rather moderate success so far. With “Threads,” the situation looks somewhat different from the outset. Behind it is the platform Instagram and thus the giant corporation Meta, owned by Mark Zuckerberg.
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What Can the Threads Platform Do?
In addition to Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are also part of the Meta group, making it one of the world’s most far-reaching services. The Threads app is therefore also connected to Instagram and thus an already existing network with over a billion monthly users. This will give Threads a significant advantage over other competitors right from the start.
In fact, there was already an extended Instagram application called Threads in 2019. It allowed users to share texts, photos, and videos with close friends. However, the service was discontinued in 2021 because it was too similar to Facebook Messenger.
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The new Threads looks very similar to Instagram in its design, and the same goes for its functionality–except that you can post text without images. The subsequent functions then resemble Twitter. You can interact with posts–or “Threads,” as they will likely be called–like, comment, share, or send them.
Instagram is directly responsible for the app’s development. Threads can therefore be easily set up with an existing Instagram account. However, the new app also has a connection to the social networking protocol ActivityPub. This allows users to easily move their account, including followers, to other compatible networks–such as Mastodon.
When Does Threads Launch?
In fact, the new offering launched on July 6, 2023. Since then, the platform has been available to users in the U.S., the U.K., and over 100 other countries. “Threads” is expected to gradually launch in other countries as well. The release seemingly went as expected–thanks to the direct connection to Instagram, Threads was able to gain several million users in a very short time.
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However, as reported by the Irish newspaper “Independent,” a launch in Europe is not planned for the time being. This was apparently revealed by an inquiry with the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). Since Meta’s parent company has its European base in the Irish capital Dublin, the DPC would be responsible for such an inquiry. However, this does not mean that “Threads” will not be available in Europe in the future. Such a step just does not seem to be planned in the near future.
The reason for this could be that Meta wants to first observe how Threads develops. On the other hand, the data exchange between Instagram and Threads could become problematic in the context of EU data protection regulations. This would affect data such as location or search history, which would then automatically be shared with Threads. However, this is not in compliance with current EU law. Depending on the service’s success in other countries, Meta might then work on a corresponding technical adjustment and roll out Threads in EU member countries.