Days after Twitter blocked unregistered users from being able to see tweets and enforced rate limits on how many tweets a logged-in user can read per day, Meta has
capitalised on the
turmoil with its own
text-based conversation app called
Threads that allows Instagram users to "follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things. According to Meta chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, the
service "passed 5 million sign ups in the first four hours." Threads, however,
is not available in the European Union at launch due to the region's stringent privacy regulations. The debut comes at a time when the
social web is witnessing a rapid shift, with conversations steadily moving from the public domain to group chats and private messaging. It's worth noting that Threads was originally the name of a
2019 app that Instagram launched as a "camera-first messaging app" to better compete with Snapchat. It was subsequently shut down in late 2021 shortly after Facebook rebranded to Meta. Twitter last week
said that it's enacting a series of policy changes to eliminate bots and other bad actors from scraping public Twitter data and manipulate the platform. That said, while the confusion prevailing in Twitterland, coupled with technical glitches and content moderation problems, has led to a
record surge in users moving to alternatives such as Bluesky and Mastodon -- the number of active users in the latter has risen by 294,000 -- Threads has the potential to become a viable rival and threaten Twitter's dominance as users will get to keep their same username. Meta has a long history of borrowing ideas from competitors, but this may be its most significant yet. Twitter, in the meanwhile, has quietly backtracked on requiring users to log in to see individual tweets. The
race is on!
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