Threads: Meta’s Rival To Elon Musk’s X Launches In EU 5 Months After Release

Threads, Meta’s social media app, launched in the European Union five months after it was released elsewhere.

It splashed as a challenger to Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter.
However, it was not made available in the EU, which has rigorous data and big tech regulations.

Meta hopes it will increase interest in the platform, which gained more than 100 million users in its first week before dropping.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, confirmed the announcement in a post on Threads, greeting new users from around Europe.
According to a Meta spokeswoman, the platform has seen “significant improvements” since its rollout in other nations in July.

The absence of important capabilities, such as a website and search capability, contributed to the waning of initial consumer interest.

Meta’s rival to Elon Musk’s X launches in EU

“Starting today, people in the EU can choose to create a Threads profile that is connected to their Instagram account – which means they get the same experience as everyone else around the world – or use Threads without a profile,” according to the announcement.

Threads had lost half of its members just three weeks after its inception, according to Mr Zuckerberg.

The addition of new features has helped it reclaim the majority of them, but Threads remains less popular than X and has far fewer users than TikTok or other Meta platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.

Meta has yet to publicly state why Threads’ launch in the EU has been delayed, although it is widely assumed that it is due to the EU’s stringent rules.

In July, a Meta spokeswoman informed The Verge that it was due to “upcoming regulatory uncertainty.”
The EU’s Digital Services Act, which imposes new responsibilities on large technology businesses, was enacted in August.

Threads: Meta’s rival to Elon Musk’s X launches in EU

They are intended to protect users on huge social networks, including regulations on advertising to children, and demand corporations be more transparent with authorities about their algorithms.

Threads request permission to access a wide range of data on your device, including location information, transactions, and browser history.

Whether the being determined has undergone major improvements to comply with EU legislation is still unknown.

However, in October, Meta announced that subscription services would be introduced across most of Europe, removing advertisements from its platforms in response to EU concerns.

It comes after Meta was fined €390 million (£335 million) in January for violating EU data laws regarding advertisements.

The subscription model is only available to EU, European Economic Area, and Switzerland residents and is not available in the United Kingdom.

SOURCE – BBC