Mark Zuckerberg’s company Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, has launched a “friendly” alternative to rival Twitter. It has been billed as a “text-based conversation app” hoping to capitalise on the blunders Elon Musk has made since he acquired Twitter last October for $44 billion. 

Twitter has been on the cusp of bankruptcy since Musk took over and its new owner has made controversial decisions that have angered some users and advertisers. On his arrival, he sacked thousands of employees in what looked like an ideological move and he restored Donald Trump’s account. He has also been a staunch defender of free speech – almost sometimes to the point of absolutism.

When asked how Threads would compete with Twitter, Zuckerberg said that making sure it was “friendly…will ultimately be the key to its success”.

Musk responded in oh-so-Musk style by tweeting: “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.”

This latest competitive spat comes in the wake of previous run-ins between the prominent tech billionaires, the most recent of which ended with Musk saying he would be “up for a cage match”. It doesn’t look like any such fight will happen, but Zuckerberg took the opportunity of the Threads launch to tweet for the first time in a decade. He posted a popular meme of two identical Spidermen pointing at each other in a friendly jibe, admitting that he was something of a copycat.

Threads operates closely with Instagram and requires an Instagram login for use. Users can, however, make changes to their Threads profile which will not affect their Instagram accounts. Some see this link to Instagram as its strength, others its weakness. It is a plus that millions of people already use Twitter. But the downside is that if a user wants to delete their Threads account, they must also delete their Instagram account – which will most likely result in many inactive Threads accounts. 

Others have criticised Threads’ invasive settings with regards to users’ data. The Apple App Store requires users to allow Threads access to financial, health and browsing data. This comes as a Meta whistleblower raised serious concerns over a company that had “prioritised profits over safety” in moderating its platforms. 

There are other alternatives to Twitter in the market such as Mastodon and Bluesky but they haven’t really taken off. One of the appeals of Threads, so Zuckerberg thinks, is that it is intended to be compatible with other apps which have been built on what’s called the “ActivityPub protocol”, meaning that it will be compatible with Mastodon and WordPress. In the future, one could potentially transfer followers and profiles to other apps creating an integrated cross-platform experience. 

For now though, Meta is doing its usual thing of copying competitors. “Instagram Stories” is eerily like the videos found on a smaller competitor app Snap and Facebook and Instagram are now doing reels that are essentially the same as videos found on TikTok. Indeed, the name “Threads” is most probably in reference to Twitter threads.

Time will tell whether people prefer the “friendly” bliss of Threads or the bot-infested sewer of Twitter. When Sam Harris (in)famously deleted his Twitter account, he said it wasn’t the town square, but the mental asylum. Meta’s challenge will be to stop Threads from degenerating into another mental asylum. 

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