Facebook monster Meta Threads, its text-based rival to Twitter, was officially launched on Wednesday – but its release in Europe has been delayed due to regulatory concerns.
Threads is the biggest challenger so far Elon Musk-in possession Twitterin which a number of potential competitors have emerged, but one of social media’s most well-known companies has yet to be replaced despite its epic struggles.
The app went live on Apple and Android app stores at 23:00 GMT (4:30 IST) with accounts already active for celebrities like Shakira and Jack Black and media outlets like The Hollywood Reporter, Vice and Netflix.
“Let’s do that. Welcome to Threads,” wrote Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in his first post on the new platform.
Launched as a clear spin-off from Instagram, the app offers it a built-in audience of more than two billion users, thereby sparing it the challenge of starting from scratch.
It’s widely believed that Zuckerberg is exploiting Musk’s messy ownership of Twitter to launch the new product that the company hopes will become the communication channel of choice for celebrities, businesses and politicians.
“It’s as simple as that: If an Instagram user with a large number of followers like Kardashian, Bieber, or Messi starts posting regularly on Threads, a new platform could quickly thrive,” strategic finance analyst Brian Wieser said on Substack.
Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Engberg said Threads only needs one in four monthly Instagram users “to grow as big as Twitter.”
“Twitter users are desperate for an alternative, and Musk has given Zuckerberg a shot,” she added.
Musk and Zuckerberg are known to be bitter rivals — and have even offered to meet in a fight cage to battle it out.
This comes after a meta manager reportedly told staff that Threads would be like Twitter but would be “executed sensibly”.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, spelled out a desire to break away from Twitter’s toxic reputation by telling users Threads is designed to build “an open and friendly platform for conversation.”
“The best thing you can do, if you want that too, is be kind,” he said.
Under Musk, moderation of content on Twitter was kept to a minimum, glitches and hasty decisions damaged the site’s reputation and scared off celebrities and big advertisers.
Musk hired ad executive Linda Yaccarino to help stabilize the ship, but she wasn’t spared his whims either.
The Tesla tycoon said last week that he was restricting access to Twitter as a temporary measure to prevent AI companies from “scraping” the site to train their technology.
Musk then angered Twitter’s most loyal fans by stating that access to his TweetDeck product – which allows users to view a rapid flood of tweets at once – was reserved for paying customers only.
Fediverse is coming soon
Threads owner Meta also has a slew of critics, especially in Europe, and despite Instagram’s huge user base, they could slow down the site’s development.
The company formerly known as Facebook has been criticized for its handling of personally identifiable information – its quintessential targeted advertising, which helps it rake in billions of dollars in profits every quarter.
According to a source familiar with the matter, regulatory concerns will delay Threads’ launch in the European Union, where Meta will be subject to a new law called the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will set strict rules for the world’s largest internet companies.
A rule prevents platforms from transferring personal data between products, as might be the case between Threads and Instagram.
Meta was caught doing just that after the company bought messaging app WhatsApp, and European regulators will be on high alert to make sure the company doesn’t do it with Threads.
Another original idea for Threads to make it interoperable with other Twitter competitors like Mastodon is also on hold for the time being but will not be abandoned.
“Soon you will be able to follow and interact with people on other Fediverse platforms,” the app told users.
In the so-called Fediversum, different platforms of all types and sizes would be able to communicate with each other.
