Meta introduces Threads, a rival to Twitter

Threads, Facebook’s text-based rival to Twitter, was officially launched on Wednesday, with over five million sign-ups in the first few hours – but its release in Europe has been delayed due to data privacy concerns.

Threads is the most serious competitor to Elon Musk’s Twitter, which has seen a slew of potential rivals emerge but has yet to replace one of social media’s most iconic companies, despite its epic struggles.

At 2300 GMT, the app went live on the Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries.

Accounts for well-known people like Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, and Hugh Jackman as well as publications like The Washington Post, Reuters, and The Economist were already active.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta and the man who founded Facebook, wrote in his first post on the new platform, which will initially function without advertisements, “Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads.

And he fired a warning shot at Musk; the two are well known for being fierce rivals and have even proposed meeting in a cage to square off.

“It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will,” Zuckerberg said.

“More than 10 million people have signed up to Threads, Meta’s rival to Twitter, within the first few hours of its launch,” the Facebook parent’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday.