Meta’s Threads App: A New Twitter Rival

Meta’s Threads App was launched by Meta, formerly known as Facebook,  to compete with Twitter. The app has quickly gained traction, attracting millions of users and offering a fresh alternative to the Twitter platform, especially in light of recent changes under Elon Musk’s leadership.

Key Points of Meta’s Threads App

• The Twitter landscape has changed dramatically since Elon Musk acquired the platform last year.
• Many new competitors have emerged, hoping to dethrone the giant.
• But despite the buzz around some of them, like Bluesky, none have really taken off.
• Instagram Threads has not only breezed past 5 million users already, but it has also done so in record time. It outperformed ChatGPT, which reached 1 million users in 5 days

What Is Instagram Threads?

• Threads is a new app from the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
• The platform looks a lot like Twitter, with a feed of largely text-based posts — although users can also post photos and videos — where people can have real-time conversations.
• Threads focuses on conversations rather than visual content.
• You can create posts with up to 500 characters (more than Twitter’s 280), links, up to 10 photos, and videos up to 5 minutes long.
• You can’t edit threads. Unlike Twitter, Threads does not seem to use hashtags and does not have a trending section.
• But the app also blends Instagram’s existing aesthetic and navigation system, and offers the ability to share posts from Threads directly to Instagram Stories.
• Thread accounts can also be listed as public or private. Verified Instagram accounts are automatically verified on Threads.

How Does Instagram Threads Work?

• Threads is part of a user’s Instagram account. Threads users will need to sign up through Instagram, and can cross over with their original username and the accounts they were following on Instagram.
• A number of settings such as blocking, restricting users, and hiding words are synced between the two platforms.
• However, if a user decides they don’t like Threads, they can only deactivate the account.
• Deleting Threads would mean deleting their Instagram account as well. Users are shown content from the accounts they follow on both Instagram and Threads , as well as recommended content.
• There are also plans to let users choose to see only the accounts they follow. There is also no way to privately message others on Threads yet.
• According to Google’s Play Store, Threads can collect data such as a user’s location, their personal information, financial information, health and fitness, messages, photos and videos, files and documents, calendar events, and more.
• Some of the personal information that Threads can collect includes the user’s address, phone number, political or religious beliefs, and/or sexual orientation.

Threads’ Launch in the European Union

• The launch of the app in the European Union (EU) has been postponed due to regulatory concerns.  
• The company’s decision stems from regulatory concerns regarding compliance with the DMA, a framework introduced to address the dominance of large digital platforms and ensure fair competition within the digital market. 
• The DMA is a regulatory initiative that aims to regulate the behavior of “gatekeeper” platforms, which possess substantial market power.
• It establishes stringent regulations for major internet companies operating in Europe, including Meta. One key regulation prohibits platforms from sharing data across different services, ensuring fair competition and data privacy. 
• Meta has faced scrutiny from European regulators in the past due to concerns over data usage.
• The company’s attempt to leverage data from WhatsApp to strengthen Instagram and Facebook, which violated EU rules, raised data privacy concerns.
• As a result, Meta is actively working towards compliance with EU regulations to avoid further conflicts. 

Threads vs. Twitter

• When Twitter was taken over by Mr. Musk in late October 2022, rival social media sites saw an uptick in user sign-ups
• As many linked Mr. Musk’s leadership with a rise in bigotry and misinformation on Twitter.
• Mastodon, for instance, scooped up around one million new users. However, growth was not consistent and Mastodon was criticised for its confusing structure of multiple servers that users can access.
• Bluesky is another contender. Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey is on the board of Bluesky, which is building a public conversation protocol so that users can move between platforms instead of being walled in.
• Bluesky’s beta version requires an invite Bluesky uses the invite codes to deter spammers and bad actors, so its growth as a Twitter rival is naturally restricted

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