We know what we have to know about Threads being a ‘Twitter killer’
Meta, the Decentralized Twitter Platform and the Musk-Mask Crisis – Why Not Sign Up for a Free Twitter Account?
The platform also arrives at a particularly weak moment for Twitter. Musk’s recent announcement that free Twitter accounts would, temporarily, only be able to view 600 tweets per day was met with derision. Such moves will likely further hurt advertising on the platform—worsening a crisis that’s been ongoing throughout Musk’s tenure.
This time, one thing is different. Meta is dangling an opportunity to essentially be on Threads without signing up for the platform at all. The company announced yesterday that it is planning to make Threads interoperable with other, non-Meta social networks that support a decentralized protocol already used by WordPress and 2022’s decentralization poster child, Mastodon. If Meta follows through, you will be able to see and interact with Threads content from other platforms and services that support the ActivityPub standard.
There are buttons to reply, like, repost or quote a thread. The number of likes and replies on a post is shown. Public or private accounts are available.
The Meta View of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter, Mastodon, and Post: Why Twitter is Weak Sauce? Comment on Musk’s Tweets about the Threads Launch
Meta already has more than 3 billion users across its stable of apps (which include Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp), and is making it easy for its existing users to start a new account.
After you download the new app you can also import the standard set-up functions of your account including your bio, usernames, profile photo and follow list.
As of midday Tuesday, more than 30 million people had taken that step to join the app, nearly 30 times the number of people who are reportedly active on Mastodon and Post.
celebrity users include chef Gordan Ramsay and actor zac efron News outlets were using Threads, too, as were brands likeAirbnb and Netflix.
Twitter doesn’t offer regular disclosures of its user numbers, especially since news broke in 2017 that it had long been over-reporting its monthly active user count. The company saw about 326 million active monthly users around that time.
One thing to note is that Meta’s owner, Mark Zuckerberg, could’ve easily launched Threads around then, or even earlier. He tried to buy it in 2008, but it wouldn’t sell.
Since acquiring the platform for $46 billion, Musk has had a hard time turning it into a profitable venture as he has slashed the number of employees and implemented policy changes that have angered some users.
Just last weekend, Musk announced a temporary cap on the number of tweets that non-paying users could view each day. Twitter also made it impossible to view tweets unless a user was signed into the platform, a move that was quickly reversed.
At a time when advertising spending at the social network is down, each new policy change brings a flurry of chatter about leaving, even after months of turmoil.
Musk referred to his sister app, instagram, as “weak sauce” when asked about the Threads launch.
He wrote that it is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers than to be happy on social media.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/06/1186191438/threads-twitter-instagram-musk-zuckerberg
The Fate of Threads: A Digital Reality Tale from Zuckerberg’s Metaverse (with an Emphasis on Meta+Memory)
The app’s financial viability is in question. Meta has laid off tens of thousands of workers as the tech industry as a whole slows down and Zuckerberg in particular continues to invest billions in his virtual reality venture, the Metaverse.
The switch to monetization would happen once the platform was running smoothly, with a clear path to 1 billion people, and Threads didn’t currently display ads.
Threads says it’s aiming to have the app work in the so-called “fediverse,” the federated universe of apps that share similar communication rules. This might be especially appealing to creators or those with a large following who are hesitant to start over on a new platform.
The issue of the culture its users build may or may not be a factor in whether Threads is a success or failure.
He said that being a friendly place was the key to its success in his first messages on the platform.
Tech buffs might argue that it’s just a game he has played before. He attempted to duplicate ephemerality by using stories on Facebook or scrolling on TikTok. Both features were bested out by the competition.
When it comes to getting users in the habit of posting on Threads, one of the app’s biggest weaknesses may be the very thing that might make the launch a success: the strength of the Meta brand.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/06/1186191438/threads-twitter-instagram-musk-zuckerberg
The terrible uncle problem: Introducing Meta-owned apps on Threads (and Twitter) to push back against exploitative content and privacy policies on social media
“The terrible uncle problem is the issue that comes about when all of your relatives, your colleagues, your high school classmates are able to find you on social media,” Greenwood told NPR’s Bobby Allyn on NPR’s Morning Edition. Young people are turned off from a platform where they feel they need to hide what they’re saying.
All of this means that if you’re sick of Meta’s data-gobbling ways, or you don’t already have an Instagram account and don’t want to get one, you actually have some leverage: Don’t join Threads. Use Mastodon or another ActivityPub platform until Threads comes to you. Or hang out on Bluesky, which doesn’t support ActivityPub but is working on its own vision of a decentralized, portable social network.
It might be a jarring reminder, but this is par for the course with Meta-owned apps, which the company monetizes by selling targeted ads and personalized marketing. Facebook and Instagram’s iOS apps list even more categories than Threads, the Messenger app lists about as many, and even the secure messaging app WhatsApp discloses nine categories of “Data Linked to You.” So for people fed up with Twitter’s rapidly deteriorating platform (and vibes), a Meta-owned alternative—with its predictability and relative stability—could even potentially appeal to those who are generally concerned about data privacy.
Meta says that Threads will start supporting ActivityPub “soon,” a descriptor that doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence. The company has spent years working on their promise of a default end to end encryption on Messenger. Meta was a part of the vision for the app from the beginning, incorporating decentralization into Threads and supporting ActivityPub. Meta has also already sketched out details of the plan in its supplemental privacy policy for Threads.
“The fact that large platforms are adopting ActivityPub is not only validation of the movement towards decentralized social media, but a path forward for people locked into these platforms to switch to better providers. Which in turn, puts pressure on such platforms to provide better, less exploitative services,” Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko wrote in a blog post ahead of yesterday’s Threads launch.
