Threads is a new Meta social media app that has recently been launched in over 100 countries, including the US and UK, however it is not yet available within the EU. The app aims to become "an option and friendly public space for conversation," sounding very similar to Twitter's aims which is to serve public conversation. There are many similarities between Threads and Xcorp's Twitter and thus is a threat of becoming Twitter's biggest competitor. Such similarities may be seen from the app's aim, the function of text, image, photo and video to be posted (alike to Twitter).
The few differences with Twitter may be argued as improvements, specifically in relation to the 500-character limit instead of 280, videos limit extended to 5 minutes, instead of Twitter's which is a much shorter length of 140 seconds. This therefore makes it a worthy rival, although, there is one limiting factor, that it's not currently available in the EU.
Why is Threads not available in the EU?
Threads is currently at over 10 million users; however, this is without yet having access to the EU market. Although Adam Mosseri (Instagram CEO) has not spelt out reason for this, it is thought that this restriction is likely because of the EU's strict privacy rules set in the new Digital Markets Act (DMA). Such privacy rules have caused META to be fearful of bringing the app to the EU, in fact the app hasn't been blocked yet but instead META themselves have chosen to hold it back. Such hesitation likely stems from the large fine received earlier this year, when Irish data regulators administered a fine of €1.2b for breaching EU data protection rules.
One of the privacy concerns with the app is the function requiring individuals to log in via their Instagram account (another meta owned app). This is consequently importing all the individual's personal data from Instagram and thus is causing large concerns regarding its privacy implications. Furthermore, a consequence of logging in through Instagram is that the app does not require an individual to go through the usual processes of readings forms, providing emails or awaiting confirmation emails. Since the app relies on advertisements to generate revenue, it also relies on personal data to tailor these ads for the consumer. The app has consequently been said to download a large quantity of private information from Instagram, such as an individual's purchases, contacts, financial information, location, contact information and search history, this collection greatly conflicts with EU law.
It is unclear whether META plans to make the changes required to Threads so that it can be implemented within the EU, however, it seems likely following a statement by Adam Mosseri, 'it's just going to take longer to make sure not only that it's compliant but that any claims we make about how we've implemented compliance stand up to our very high set of documentation and testing centers internally." However, this is yet to be confirmed and they will likely await further clarification from EU officials regarding how to follow the DMA.
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