So, how are you all enjoying Threads? I would genuinely like to know because I live in Germany and Meta has decided not to launch its Twitter rival in the European Union just yet.
I was musing yesterday about how the app would go down with the EU’s antitrust authorities and, according to reports, the EU’s incoming Digital Markets Act is indeed the problem—specifically, the new antitrust law’s ban on “gatekeepers” like Meta mixing data between multiple core services without the user’s explicit consent. Threads is a stand-alone app, but it requires an Instagram account (more on that later) and automatically draws on a user’s Instagram connections. So for now, no Threads for us Europeans.
This is starting to be a familiar feeling, after Google recently held back from launching its Bard chatbot in the EU over uncertainty that it complies with the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation.
Speaking personally, both of these developments are annoying from a professional standpoint but otherwise not the end of the world—for now. I’d like to play with Bard, but generative A.I. has no place in any of my daily processes or routines yet. I’d also like to try Threads, but as I never boarded the Instagram train I would be starting from scratch there anyway, and there are plenty of other new social networks where I can do that. I greatly appreciate the protection of the EU’s tough competition and privacy laws, but it’s becoming apparent that Europe is not the place to be these days for an early adopter.
That said, Threads is off to a flying start elsewhere, having already amassed over 30 million users. The early reviews are mixed. Here’s Kari Paul for the Guardian:
“Meta’s clone of Twitter does feel like, well, using Twitter. The features—likes, retweets, following—are nearly identical to its long-standing microblog predecessor. However, with Twitter getting clunkier and progressively less usable since Musk took it over, opening an app and actually being able to see and engage with content smoothly felt like a breath of fresh air.”
And the Washington Post’s Geoffrey Fowler and Naomi Nix:
“Threads…comes with Meta baggage, including privacy, moderation, and algorithmic feed practices that have turned many people off Zuckerberg’s other social networks such as Facebook. For example: From the moment you first log in to Threads, it starts showing you recommended posts from accounts and brands you don’t necessarily follow—or necessarily even care to see.”
Apart from the early analyses, two details have caught the eye of this tech-regulation nerd:
—Once you’ve joined Threads, deleting your profile there also means deleting your Instagram account. That’s just plain annoying, and also a potential antitrust and data protection issue.
—Threads’ promised compatibility with the ActivityPub protocol isn’t available at the start, which is seemingly a function of the speed at which the Instagram team seized the opportunity to capitalize on Twitter’s implosion. As I mentioned yesterday, allowing Threads to interoperate with other ActivityPub-friendly platforms, such as Mastodon, will be music to the ears of antitrust regulators.
More news below.
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David Meyer
