With Twitter undergoing significant product degeneration at the hands of Elon Musk, people have been desperate for a replacement. As we reported last week, Twitter had started to limit the amount of tweets users could view in a day. In the strange saga that is the rise of tech billionaires, there is a very limited monopoly for companies behind the most used social media platforms in the world. Mark Zuckerberg sits at the pinnacle of this; his ‘Meta’ conglomerate boasts apps like Facebook (his initial conception in 2004), Instagram and Whatsapp. If anyone were to challenge Elon Musk’s flagrant mismanagement of Twitter, it was going to have to be Zuck – the original ‘connect billions around the world’ social media magnate. 

Threads was launched last week amidst the news of Twitter’s cap limit for users. While the project was top secret, and supposed to be launched later this month, it seems Meta had decided to strike while the going was going and Elon’s ship was sinking. 

Launched as part of Instagram’s suite of functions, it appears to be a relative copy of the format of Twitter, though with a very different energy. In a kind of ‘social media canon event’, signing up populated the minimal app with celebrities, influencers, brands and laypeople on what seems to be a ‘fresh’ playing field.

Sourcde via Digital Trends

Threads shares similarities with Twitter, albeit with a few distinctions. It allows users to create concise posts of up to 500 characters, encompassing links, photos, and short videos lasting up to five minutes. The Threads feed operates on an algorithmic basis, combining posts from both people you follow and suggested content, similar to the current approach employed by Instagram. In contrast, Twitter provides the choice to switch between an algorithmic feed and a chronological feed that exclusively showcases posts from the accounts you follow. This kind of integrated functionality is part of Meta’s long term vision to bring ‘decentralised’ exporting and importing of one’s social media presence across all of its platforms.

The response to Threads has been mostly positive. With Instagrams (supposed) stricter guidelines, there will be more monitoring on hate speech, sexual content and so on. We will see if this lasts, as Twitter has amassed a polarising reputation for being a chaotic realm to say and do almost anything. Part of Musk’s manifesto for Twitter was ‘free speech’, which for he and conservative-right wingers alike usually just means allowing folks like Donald Trump and Neo-Nazi figures, as detailed by Hunger Magazine here. The general mood on Threads when I signed up was the overwhelming sense that we could truly connect in a space with less expectation and baggage.

Threads has been downloaded 100 million times and counting since its launch. Twitter has around 250 million active users daily; so it seems Musk and Zuck are headlocked in a battle that far surpasses their cage fight debacle, possibly set to occur at the colosseum. This world just seems to get stranger and stranger and we will clearly have to choose between one Tech overlord over the other. For now? I’m threadin’.

Written by: Holly Beaton

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