The story so far:
The past two weeks sorely tested the patience of Twitter users. Multiple outages plagued the platform while billionaire owner Elon Musk cited data scraping by other organisations as his reason for limiting the number of tweets both paying and non-paying accounts could view every day. In response to complaints, Mr. Musk posted memes and made fun of Twitter users.
What is Threads?
Launched by Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp-parent Meta on July 5, Threads is a text-based public conversation app that was built by the team behind the photo-sharing app Instagram. Both iOS and Android users in over 100 countries could access the app this week. Attracting around 70 million sign-ups in just two days, the response reportedly stunned even Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, reported Bloomberg.
While Twitter had around 368 million monthly active users worldwide in December 2022, according to Statista, Instagram has over two billion monthly active users.
How does 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.
Though Threads is still in its early days, Meta plans to make it compatible with the open social networking protocol ActivityPub, so that Threads could one day work with platforms such as the decentralised social media site Mastodon and the content management system and website-builder WordPress.
How similar is Threads to Twitter?
Threads is similar to Twitter in terms of its user interface and basic features. Threads users can make posts and comment in response. They can also heart posts, repost and quote them, or share posts on Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms. Threads posts can go up to 500 characters and include media such as links, pictures, and videos which are up to five minutes long.
News organisations and other professionals often rely on Twitter for instant updates and official statements or comments. However, Threads does not yet support the keyword searches which are necessary for these users. Threads also does not display trends in the way Twitter does.
For the moment, Meta’s new app feels like a familiar mix of both Instagram and Twitter’s most recognisable features. Threads does not have advertisements yet. It remains to be seen how the platform will evolve in response to user and advertiser demands.
What was Elon Musk’s reaction to Threads?
While Mr. Musk initially responded to news reports about Threads with jokes and light-hearted comments, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro sent a letter to Mr. Zuckerberg, threatening a lawsuit, reported Semafor. In his letter dated July 5, Mr. Spiro claimed that Meta had hired “dozens of former Twitter employees” and used these employees along with the Twitter trade secrets they knew to build Meta’s “copycat” Threads app. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone stressed that no one on the Threads engineering team was a former Twitter employee.
For some time before the launch of Threads, Mr. Musk and Mr. Zuckerberg publicly challenged one another to a physical fight.
Why is Threads facing issues in the EU?
Users in the European Union were not able to download Threads on July 5, as Meta delayed releasing the app in these countries due to challenges with regulatory compliance in the region. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri told tech outlet The Verge that while Meta planned to bring Threads to the EU, the timeline would be longer to ensure compliance with laws coming into effect in 2024.
While Mr. Mosseri did not mention any law by name, The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which began to apply in May, plans to categorise large online platforms as “gatekeepers” and put in place rules to ensure they handle data fairly, do not put rivals at a disadvantage, and gain consent to track users outside the “core platform service” for targeted advertising.
Separately, the European Court of Justice in July took the side of Germany’s anti-cartel watchdog which wanted to stop Meta’s practice of mixing data collected across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
What are some other Twitter rivals?
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, reported The Guardian. 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 but the platform recorded 50,000 users in April and over 58,000 sign-ups in early July, reported CNBC. Bluesky uses the invite codes to deter spammers and bad actors, so its growth as a Twitter rival is naturally restricted.
How are Bluesky and Mastodon different from Twitter and Threads?
Bluesky and Mastodon both aim to be decentralised platforms. Bluesky is based on the AT Protocol and its founders intend for creators to build their own applications on the protocol so that users can move between social media platforms without losing their data. Mastodon, meanwhile, offers providers called servers which users must join to connect with others. These servers can be region-specific or based on topics such as Technology, Gaming, LGBTQ+, Music, and more. Mastodon servers have their own entry requirements and policies. Users can move between servers or host their own.
Meta’s Threads plans to use the ActivityPub protocol which Mastodon uses in the future so that the platforms can work together.
In contrast, Twitter is a centralised social media platform which has more direct control over user actions and content moderation. If Twitter users want to shift their accounts to another platform, they have to start again with zero followers and posts.
With a userbase in the billions, Meta is perhaps the best rival to take on an increasingly erratic Twitter. Yet Threads brings experimental features, dark patterns, and algorithmic feeds during a time when more internet users want usability, transparency, and accountability from their social media companies.
- Launched by Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp-parent Meta on July 5, Threads is a text-based public conversation app that was built by the team behind the photo-sharing app Instagram.
- While Twitter had around 368 million monthly active users worldwide in December 2022, according to Statista, Instagram has over two billion monthly active users.
- With a userbase in the billions, Meta is perhaps the best rival to take on an increasingly erratic Twitter.
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