Twitter had been unopposed for more than 15 years, but earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, released his “Twitter Killer” Threads. Threads took a mere 5 days to reach 100 million users, which begs the question, will Threads replace Twitter forever?
New Changes to Twitter
Twitter was first created to be a platform for people to share opinions and understand what’s happening in the world. The platform used to get over 450 million people every day before Threads. In October 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion and changed almost everything about Twitter.
For example, on July 3rd of this year, Musk suddenly decided to temporarily limit the number of tweets a user can read per day. Musk’s reasoning behind this decision was to reduce the number of people web scraping Twitter. Web Scraping is the technical term for extracting data from a site. This change transformed how people perceived Twitter and Elon Musk, and this wasn’t the only way Twitter has been different since Musk took over.
Now, Twitter has been getting more ads than ever before. Anyone can pay to get the blue check mark next to their name, leading to a lot of imposter celebrities on Twitter. Only 3 days after Musk started limiting tweets, Threads came to save the day.
Allure of Threads
You might be wondering why Zuckerberg would release Threads. One of the reasons is the long-lasting rivalry between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. It all started in 2016 when Zuckerberg wanted to send his own satellite to space by partnering with Musk and using a SpaceX Rocket. Unfortunately, the satellite blew up in a test launch, leading to their never-ending brawl and leading to Threads.
“We’re often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.”
Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino
Threads pretty much does everything Twitter does, but it is missing some features like trending topics and hashtags, which Meta should be incorporating over time. When Threads first came out, Twitter was dead silent for a few days. So silent that only a short while after it came out, Zuckerberg got a letter from Musk threatening to sue him for hiring former Twitter employees to create Threads. But Zuckerberg claims they do not have any former Twitter employees in Threads.
Next Difficulties
Although Threads has had such rapid growth, reports say that Meta is currently unable to retain more than half of their users. Zuckerberg says that this is completely normal and that they are working on some retention hooks to keep users returning to the app. Nobody is certain whether Threads will replace Twitter, but there are some major implications if it does.
Many know Facebook hasn’t had the greatest track record in how they use personal data. The company has had multiple lawsuits for misusing user data to sell it to advertisers and give users targeted ads. Yet, they still do it to this day in some way, shape, or form. Facebook also owns other major social media companies like Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, etc.
If they replace Twitter, they could potentially hold a monopoly over the social media industry, and knowing what Meta likes to do with user data, that might not be a good thing.
Issues with Threads
There are also other little things that are messed up about Threads like the fact that you require an Instagram account if you want to open a Threads account, and you can’t delete your Threads account unless you delete your Instagram account. This forces you to be a part of the Meta network in more ways than one.
Another major issue is how much data Threads asks for when you install the app. The app asks for your health data, purchasing history, browsing history, and other sensitive information, which is the reason why it’s not available in the European Union right now.
In addition, Zuckerberg posted a Thread saying “Our approach will be the same as all our other products: make the product work well first, then see if we can get it on a clear path to 1 billion people, and only then think about monetization at that point.”
This basically means once Threads reaches a billion users, they will start trying to extract money from Threads, which could mean just ads and digital profiling or much worse.