Could Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads Kill Elon Musk’s Twitter?

Threads, a new app issued by the Meta company, topped the search engines in the past hours, with 30 million subscribers joining it less than a day after its launch.

Threads was launched on Wednesday at 23:00 GMT in 100 countries, ads-less, and represents the biggest challenge to Twitter, which is floundering in a series of problems.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is looking to rival Elon Musk’s Twitter, capitalizing on Instagram’s millions of users.

The user interface of Threads is similar to the micro-blogging platform Twitter. It allows creating short text posts that users can like, repost, and respond to, but it does not support keyword searches nor send direct private messages.

A post can be up to 500 characters long and include links, images, and videos up to 5 minutes long, according to a meta post.

This is not the first time that the Meta company has copied the features of other applications, as it has previously imitated the Snapchat app with the style of daily stories and the TikTok app with the short video feature.

But Threads came after Elon Musk threatened what looked like a challenge to a fight with Zuckerberg, to which the latter responded by asking for a location, but by surprise, Mark published his new app, copying most of the features of Twitter.

Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, but the platform’s value has declined since then, as it faced an exodus of advertisers amid deep staff cuts and disputes over moderation in content, and the platform’s latest move was to limit the number of tweets users could read per day.

 

What Is Threads?

On July 5, Meta officially launched Threads, which is based on text posts and is the biggest challenge for Twitter and its owner Elon Musk, who has succeeded so far in repelling any potential competitor from similar apps that have emerged, such as Bluesky and Mastodon.

According to the BBC, 10 million people signed up for Threads within 7 hours of its launch.

Threads is now available in the Apple Store and Play Store in more than 100 countries, and includes active accounts of celebrities such as Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, and Hugh Jackman, in addition to media outlets such as The Washington Post, Reuters, and Al-Estiklal, and platforms such as The Hollywood Reporter, Vice, and Netflix.

In turn, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in his first post on the new app: “Let’s get started now. Welcome to Threads.”

The next day he added: “Wow. 30 million accounts created as of this morning. Seems like the start of something special, but we have a lot of work to do to build this app.”

On his part, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said: “I hope that Threads will be an open platform that welcomes everyone to have discussions.”

Coinciding with the launch of Threads, American billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth increased by over $2.9 billion, reaching a total of $107 billion, according to economic reports.

While Threads continues its strong launch, putting it into service in Europe was delayed for procedural reasons, as happened with its owner Mark Zuckerberg when he bought WhatsApp.

A source close to the company told AFP that regulatory concerns would delay the launch of the app in EU countries, where Meta is subject to the new Digital Markets Act (DMA), which imposes strict rules on major Internet companies.

One such rule restricts the transfer of personal data between different products, as would be the case between Instagram and Threads. Zuckerberg was previously caught by European regulators and was doing so when he bought WhatsApp.

 

Twitter’s Floundering

Threads relies on its launch on Instagram’s user base, which exceeds two billion accounts, which saves it the challenge of starting from scratch.

With more than two billion active users, Instagram provides the new service with a launching pad that other Twitter competitors like Bluesky or Mastodon have not, right through to ultra-conservative favorites like Truth Social, Parler, Gettr, and Gab.

Threads allows Instagram users to confirm login through the passwords they use, to publish content on the new platform.

“It’s as simple as that: if an Instagram user with a large number of followers such as a Kardashian or a Bieber or a Messi begins posting on Threads regularly, a new platform could quickly thrive,” strategic financial analyst Brian Wieser wrote on Substack.

It is clear that Zuckerberg is taking advantage of Twitter’s floundering under its new owner’s management to launch this competing product, which Meta hopes will become the preferred communication channel for celebrities, corporations, and politicians.

The launch of the platform came only four months after information about this project was leaked.

It also came after other unwelcome measures since Musk’s purchase of Twitter, especially converting account verification into a paid service or dismissing the majority of employees in content control, according to The Guardian.

On July 1, Musk announced the imposition of a cap on the number of messages that can be viewed per day in each account, officially on a temporary basis, a measure that was not well received by users, advertisers, and developers as well.

Twitter announced on July 3 that the TweetDeck service will only be available to verified and paid accounts.

Some users see that the move to limit the viewing of tweets comes as an attempt to encourage subscription to the Twitter Blue service - which allows users to view 10 thousand tweets per day. Others believe that suppliers who lease their server capacity to the company may have imposed restrictions on it to limit usage capacity.

On the other hand, Twitter has seen a sharp drop in advertising revenue, on which it’s incredibly reliant, and has regularly missed its sales projections.

The timing is very good for Meta, said Jonathan Taplin, author of two books on giant tech companies, stressing that Threads pose an existential threat to Twitter.

 

Mixed Reaction

Users interacted widely to post their first tweet-ish on Threads, expressing their feelings about using the new app, which mixed between enthusiasm, happiness, and the desire to explore.

While some Twitter users insisted on confirming that Twitter will remain better for them to share their content, considering that the enthusiasm for using the new app will disappear after a short period.

Others laughed at Threads’ method of copying all the advantages of Twitter and considered that it would not be in any way competitive with the blue platform.

The American journalist, Ryan Yamamoto, tweeted sarcastically: “This is the Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg cage match we’ve been looking for.”

In turn, blogger Damien Lavizzo wrote: “I’ve been looking for a reason to jump ship from Twitter, and Threads looks like it. If you’d like to keep in touch, I follow everyone who follows me, generally.”

On his part, activist Jason Redd said: “Got my threads ticket. Goodbye Twitter.”

Blogger Ali wrote: “Sorry to say but [Threads is] Twitter’s new killer. [Elon Musk,] you are the reason behind all of this.”

 

Competition or Cheating?

In the same context, Twitter threatened to sue Meta because of its new platform in a letter sent by its lawyer Alex Spiro to the CEO of the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg.

Semaphore news website reported that Spiro accused Meta in his letter of hiring former employees of the company who had, and still have, access to trade secrets and other top-secret information held by Twitter.

“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” Spiro wrote in the letter.

Andy Stone, Meta’s communications director, told Semafor that Twitter’s accusations are baseless.

“No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee, that’s just not a thing,” he said.

In a tweet posted after this story was initially published on July 6, Musk wrote that “competition is fine, cheating is not.”

Intellectual property law experts said Twitter needed far more detail than what was contained in the letter to file a trade secrets’ theft lawsuit against Meta.

Credits: The Week / Illustrated / Getty Images

In turn, technology expert Hamza Murad said in a statement to Al-Estiklal that “there are different points of view on whether or not Threads can replace Twitter.

“Some people think that Threads may offer a freer solution than the restrictions you might face on Twitter. Others see that Twitter has a huge user base and a strong presence that includes the accounts of heads of state and companies, and therefore it is indispensable,” he said.

“On the other hand, the conflict between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg is only part of the larger scene in the world of technology and social media. This conflict may continue to evolve and change over time, and Threads may have a role to play in this scenario,” Mr. Murad explained.

“Ultimately, the choice to use a particular platform depends on the individual user’s preferences and what meets their social and communication needs,” he added.