Meta’s coming for Elon Musk’s bag: Everything you need to know about the latest Twitter copycat, Threads
Itās been a bumpy road, to say the least, on the wild ride that has been Elon Muskās Twitter takeover. But, itās looking like it might be about to crash for good. Facebook parent company Meta is set to launch a rival to the infamous bird app in the US on Thursday 6 July 2023 in the form of a platform named Threads, aptly dubbed asāāan Instagram app.ā So, whatās different about Facebookās version of the app, and should any of us care?
What is Threads? And how is it different from Twitter?
Mark Zuckerbergās attempt at a Twitter-style app appears to offer very few differences so far, aside from a promise that the app will be āsanely run.ā The platform will be first and foremost a ātext-based conversation app,ā much like Twitter aspires to be, although deep down we know these apps are in reality hotspots for flame wars, leaks, and cancel threads. Hey, I just got the name.
Zuckerberg is directly ripping off the notorious threads that have long been synonymous with Twitter. I wonāt lie, Iām kind of here for this catty behaviour from tech billionaire Zuckerberg, I didnāt know he had it in him. Although saying that, the semi-fictional plot of The Social Network did always suggest he had a petty streak.
Screenshots that have appeared on the Apple store listing for the app show a clean user interface and a recognisable layout, one that wonāt alienate anyone planning to jump ship from Muskās dumpster fire of an app.
Zuckerberg hopes to make the transition even easier for hesitant netizens by allowing them to log in with their already up and running Instagram account, and even import their existing followers from the app.
Musk sparked the fury of Twitter users over the weekend by rate-limiting the amount of posts that could be viewed by non-paying accounts. A move by Musk to limit ādata scrapingā of the website, but more than likely a ploy to squeeze more money out of its users. In stark contrast to this, Threads will have no subscription plans and no limits on the amount of content its users can view.
Plus, with the news that TweetDeck will soon be going behind a paywall, itās almost as if Elon wants his app to fail. The Tesla CEO is making it way too easy for his future cage match opponent.
Although Threads seems as though itāll be a decent alternative to Twitter, users online were quick to point out the amount of data Meta is already asking from you when you sign up for the new platform.
šØBREAKING: META's Answer to Twitter (Threads) Release Date CONFIRMED
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) July 4, 2023
'Threads' will be released on Thursday in the U.S.
The app has been described as a competitor to Twitter. According to an executive at Meta, its goal is to establish a "sanely run" social media site.ā¦ pic.twitter.com/PxQxAERnB1
Although this prospect might be scary to the more data-protective internet dwellers, Iām already on Instagram, so I know Zuckerberg has all this information anyway. Iāve already sold my soul to the data devil, but if information hoovering is something that worries you, Threads may not be an ideal solution to the Twitter problemāyou might want to try Mastodon, or T2 Social instead.
Itāll be interesting to see how Threads approaches freedom of speech and censorship, issues that have been a huge part of the Twitter discourse, and something that is allegedly very close to Muskās heart, despite his repeated hypocrisy surrounding it.
