Mark Zuckerberg has made it a lifelong mission to unseat Twitter as the web’s preeminent place for public discourse. After much teasing, Meta is finally releasing Threads, its competitor.
This past Thursday, the Instagram companion app Threads became available for pre-registration in the Apple App Store. The app is similar to Twitter in that it encourages public discussion and allows users to follow those they already interact with on Instagram.
Some in the tech community have already begun calling this forthcoming app a “Twitter killer.”
Thread will capitalize on Twitter’s gaps
Meta’s leaders have been considering ways to capitalize on Twitter’s problems, such as creating a competitive service, since last year. The New York Times reported in December on an internal post from a Meta employee saying, “Twitter is in turmoil and Meta needs its mojo back. Let’s raid their pantry and see what we can find.
Therefore, Threads was born as an Instagram-inspired rapid development initiative internally dubbed “Project 92.” Photo previews on Apple’s App Store suggest that users can sign in with the click of a button by linking their Instagram accounts.
Executives at Meta have marketed their public-facing social networking software as a “well-managed” version of the genre, alluding obliquely to Mr. Musk’s erratic behavior.
Mr. Musk and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A screenshot of the app’s data policy was tweeted by the app’s co-founder Jack Dorsey after it gained attention quickly. Musk added his two cents with a simple “Yeah” in agreement. When reached for comment, a Meta representative declined to do so at this time.
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