Threads by Instagram – live: Meta’s new Twitter rival app gets 10 million sign-ups in first hours of launch
Threads arrives at a particularly difficult time for Twitter
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Meta’s new Twitter rival Threads has racked up over five million signups within the first four hours of its launch, the tech giant’s chief Mark Zuckerberg said.
Threads arrives at a particularly difficult time for Elon Musk’s Twitter. The site has faced a range of technical issues in recent days, which it has blamed on AI services scraping its site.
“Threads, an Instagram app” is already listed on the App Store. It aims to take on the app with a range of features that are similar to those offered by Twitter, according to its App Store listing.
“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” it reads. “Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favourite creators and others who love the same things — or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.”
It is the latest in a long line of apps to try and take over from the increasingly troubled Twitter in offering text-based updates.
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Musk looks to disparage Threads ahead of launch
Elon Musk’s response to the upcoming launch of Threads has mostly been to slyly criticise it. “Thank goodness they’re so sanely run,” he tweeted sarcastically in response to one report; he responded to tweets about the app’s data collection settings in an apparent attempt to make them more visible.
That criticism comes as Elon Musk and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg move towards having a real life MMA fight.
Threads might arrive at the worst possible time for Elon Musk
Twitter has gone from outrage to controversy since Elon Musk took it over late last year. And so any moment when Meta launched its competitor could have been likely to be a bad one.
But Threads is coming at a particularly bad time for Elon Musk. Key parts of the site have been breaking, and it has imposed “rate limits” that mean that its most engaged users are stopped from scrolling.
Threads three hours from launch
Meta has launched a very nice looking page for Threads, with swirling colours that you can move around. (Some people are saying that it’s a little too nice, and that their computer can’t handle it properly.)
It contains only two actually useful bits of information: a QR code for signing up, and a countdown. That countdown now indicates the launch is three hours away.
(Initial reports had suggested that the launch would be happening on Thursday morning US time, but it has now seemingly moved forward.)
Threads not appearing in EU App Store over privacy rules
Threads has appeared on the App Store in the US and UK. But it is not available in the European Union, and the App Store listing in that country is empty.
That is because of privacy concerns about the app, reports the Irish Independent. The country’s data protection regulator – which looks after Meta, since it is headquartered in Ireland – said that it will not be rolling out “at this point”, and the problems might be the result of confusion over the Digital Markets Act.
That seems to be because Threads imports data from Instagram. While it is a separate app, Threads is expected to be closely integrated with that other Meta app.
You can read more here.
Threads app will gather large amounts of data, listing reveals
Threads is live on the App Store, though you can’t yet download it. But it does already reveal that the app will be collecting vast amounts of data:
Those details, which Apple calls “privacy nutrition labels” don’t always tell the full story: apps have to list any data they may collect, and so it might not be quite as much as the listing suggests. But it does include some notable kinds of data, including “sensitive info”.
You can find Threads’ full listing here. While you can’t download it yet, you can “pre-order” it, which will make it available on your phone once it’s out.
Hello and welcome...
... to our live coverage of the launch of “Threads, an Instagram app” – Mark Zuckerberg’s attempt to take over from Twitter.
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