Social media
Facebook group attacks Twitter with competing app
The new Threads app can already be found in the Google Playstore. photo
© Mateusz Slodkowski/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
Tech billionaire Elon Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter – and repeatedly plunged the online service into chaos. Now his adversary Mark Zuckerberg is putting Twitter under even more pressure with the Threads app.
The online duel of the tech billionaires is heating up: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook group Meta is attacking the weakened one Twitter head-on by Elon Musk. Meta’s Twitter copy, dubbed Threads, hit 10 million users in the first seven hours, Zuckerberg announced on Thursday. The app launched in the US and more than 100 other countries – but not in the European Union. Meta referred to open questions in regulation and made it clear that Europeans should expect a long wait.
Threads is tied to Meta’s Instagram photo and video app and is believed to be the biggest threat to Twitter to date. The reason is a head start: Meta can draw on existing connections between more than a billion Instagram users for its Twitter copy right from the start. With other Twitter competitors such as Bluesky and T2, such links have to be created from scratch.
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri indicated in interviews that the new set of rules with the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, which will take effect in the next few years, was a hurdle in the EU. The laws set strict requirements for online platforms. In the “Platformer” blog, Mosseri defended the decision to start without users in Germany and other EU countries. The choice was between leaving them out or “delaying the launch for many, many, many months,” he said. “And I was worried that the window would close for us.”
The launch of Threads comes at a moment of particular weakness for Twitter, which has been troubled since Musk took over. The short message service annoyed users over the weekend with a drastic restriction on the number of tweets they can see for free per day. After Threads launched, Musk was defiant: it’s infinitely better to be attacked by strangers on Twitter than to indulge in the “false bliss” of Instagram. Musk, who is known for his right-wing views, relaxed the measures against insults and misinformation after the takeover.
How threads work
The meta app looks pretty much like Twitter. You can follow other users and forward posts to your own followers. Instagram users can easily apply their profile to the photo app for threads. Text posts on threads can be up to 500 characters long and can contain links, photos, and videos up to five minutes long. When Twitter was launched in 2006, the text limit was originally 140 characters and was later doubled to 280 characters.
Are there also differences to Twitter?
In addition to the accounts they follow, Thread users also get “recommended content” from other profiles in their feed. The posts are not displayed in chronological order, but sorted by the software. First of all, there is no option to only display content from the profiles that you follow. But this is “on the list” for the future, assured Instagram boss Mosseri.
What about privacy?
Threads reserves the right to collect a wide range of personal information. This may include but is not limited to location data, contacts, and health information. What surprised some users: A Threads profile can only be deleted together with the Instagram account.
Do users in EU countries not even notice threads?
Until Threads is launched in the EU, users from the region can view posts in a web view, but cannot share or like them.
Musk bought Twitter for around $44 billion – and later admitted that the valuation in discussions with investors is now significantly lower. Zuckerberg expressed hope Thursday that Threads could surpass a billion users over time. Twitter hasn’t had any user numbers since Musk took over, the short message service used to have more than 300 million users. Unlike Twitter in the Musk era, Meta has no money worries and can afford staying power with threads.
Musk and Zuckerberg are increasingly becoming rivals. In June, the two tech billionaires even agreed to an exhibition match. At first there were doubts, but recently the “New York Times” reported that such a fight was actually being prepared – even if it was still unclear whether it would actually take place. Zuckerberg, 39, trains with martial arts trainers and is visibly fitter than Musk, 52.
The Facebook group has repeatedly copied services and functions from rivals, but has had a mixed record. This worked extremely well with the Stories format invented by the photo app Snap, in which users can show their friends pictures and videos for a day. The short videos called “Reels”, with which Instagram and Facebook copy the popular Tiktok app, are also growing. On the other hand, despite several attempts, the group never succeeded in establishing a competitor to Snapchat’s self-deleting videos.
According to media reports, Zuckerberg also tried to buy Twitter more than a decade ago. But he was rejected by the founders.
Threads in Apple’s US App Store Blog entry by Meta on Threads Zuckerberg on Threads Mosseri on “The Verge” Zuckerberg on the ten million user mark Mosseri on “Platformer” Musk’s tweet