Mark Zuckerberg’s fantastic debut in the microblogging space could spell trouble for Elon Musk’s Twitter. As Instagram’s text-based social-media platform Threads garnered over 30 million users after its debut, it is appearing to be a potent threat to Twitter, which is the premier networking platform for the purported intellectual and social elite of the world. With these numbers it has the second-largest subscriber base in the microblogging sphere.
- Explainer: What is Threads? Is Twitter in danger?
Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk’s long standing rivalry, which became a literal cagefight last month, has culminated in Threads, a Twitter copy-cat for all intents and purposes. If the trends mean anything, users are fleeing to Meta’s platform in droves, mostly tired of Musk’s erratic moderation style which has soured a huge portion of Twitter’s users. Desperate to monetise on a bad business decision, Elon Musk has put several of Twitter’s features behind a paywall, including verification, navigation or the edits feature, much to its users’ chagrin.
On the eve of the launch of Threads, Twitter put a Tweet rate limit, that restricts the number of tweets you can read every day, citing exploitative data scraping by big tech for the development of AI. However, since the launch of Threads app, Twitter has quietly removed the Tweet limit, but this rectification might be too little to late. Many users now perceive Twitter to be an unreliable, money grubbing platform, that is forcefully compelling its users to get paid verification.
Many experts have quite dramatically monickered Zuckerberg’s Threads app as the ‘Twitter killer’, and it certainly has all the ingredients to take down Twitter. In the recent months, many rivals for the Bird app have tried and failed to do so, including Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky, Donald Trump’s Truth Social, Clubhouse and many more. Threads, has given the strongest debut of all its competitors, gathering 10 million subscribers in 7 hours, with many more of Instagram’s 2.35 billion odd user base likely to transition to the app.
By linking Instagram to Twitter, people who are verified on Instagram can keep their blue checks for free, and it is really easy to follow your Instagram connections- which builds usable networks for Threads users more quickly.
Meta’s shady privacy practices in the past could be a cause of concern, however users are discounting that for now, more keen of fleeing the itinerant billionaire (Musk) that ruined the experience of Twitter for many of its users. Mishi Choudhary, Technology Lawyer and Online Civil Rights Activist, said: “The current state of mayhem at Twitter presents a great opportunity for Meta to offer an alternative to users. But Meta’s abysmal privacy record is bound to raise concerns. Threads is perfectly capable of acquiring a large user base considering it’s based on Instagram that boasts of over 2 billion users”
Twitter was the internet watercooler where politicians, professionals and journalists mingled to exchange ideas- however many users have not enjoyed these watercooler convos as the app went through a tough takeover. While Elon Musk is not wrong in trying to monetise an app that was struggling as far as funds are concerned, Zuckerberg has taken advantage of Twitter’s marred reputation to take over another social media style.
Published on July 6, 2023
