Threads and Twitter: What’s going on?

Internet Creation Ltd is now on Threads! 😁

The latest development in the Zuckerberg-Musk battle is the launch of Threads! This is a new social platform linked to Instagram that functions similarly to Twitter, allowing users to post “Threads” similar to tweets. The app allows its users to write and share text-based updates with their followers, who can interact with the tweets in a similar style. Interestingly, the name “Threads” came from a term used on Twitter for a long string of tweets. Now Meta has taken this term for their own platform, I wonder how Twitter and Elon will react.

Musk and Twitter

It’s no wonder that Meta is interested in converting Twitter users over to Threads, with Zuckerberg stating that there should be conversation apps with over a billion people and that “Twitter hasn’t nailed it,” and that creators and public figures are “interested in having a platform that is sanely run” (Meta Chief Product Officer Chris Cox).

It is no secret that things have not been smooth sailing at Twitter since Musk took over. From issues about employees’ disabilities to the war in Ukraine, Musk and Twitter have easily managed to reach the front pages in recent months. Musk introduced changes such as the subscription blue tick, which caused users on both sides of the political spectrum to question Musk and Twitter’s position on free speech. Is the speech truly free if you can pay to have your tweet shown above others? These large-scale changes and controversies have meant there was a gap in the market for users who wanted to move away from Twitter but keep the same conversational style system that they are used to, and more importantly, that is in demand.

It can be argued that the latest developments started when Musk announced that Twitter would be limiting the number of tweets a user can see in an attempt to monetize the services and cut costs. Google responded to this by removing Twitter links from the Google Search Results page. Google spokesperson Lara Levin stated that “We’re aware that our ability to crawl Twitter.com has been limited, affecting our ability to display tweets and pages from the site in search results” and “websites have control over whether crawlers can access their content.” Google seems to be making it clear that this is a natural consequence of Musk’s decision to limit Google bots from crawling the site.

This created a very open gap for someone to take advantage of, and Mark Zuckerberg did just that.

Zuckerberg and Threads

Remember how we were talking about ChatGPT all the time a few months back? Well, Threads has already beaten the record set by ChatGPT for new users, and it only went live on Wednesday, June 5th. Zuckerberg said that the app had 10 million users within the first seven hours, and more than 30 million by Thursday morning.

So why would users flock to Threads over Twitter? As previously discussed, Twitter has its own share of controversies, and it is believed its users have become disenfranchised by Musk and the large changes he is making on the platform. Threads has offered these users a very similar space to continue their activity, but with the hosting and security of Meta and Mark. The biggest advantage of Threads, though, is its integration with Instagram, meaning you need an Instagram account in order to create a Threads account. This means you can go on there and automatically follow all the same people you do on Instagram, meaning you are not starting communities from scratch, which has been the difficulty faced by other platforms such as Mastodon and Truth Social.

Threads provides a similar service to Twitter but offers a longer post length, longer video length, and (depending on who you ask) a better verification system. On the other hand, Twitter still has the edge in reporting trending topics and the ability to direct message other users. Twitter also has desktop functionality, unlike Threads.

 

What’s next?

Well, Threads has grown a lot since it launched last week, and most major companies and individuals will now have a Threads account and are likely to be active on it. There is a reason for its rapid growth, and that is its ease of use with the Instagram integration. Twitter has responded with fire and sword, filing a lawsuit accusing Zuckerberg of “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property,” accusing Meta of hiring former Twitter employees who had access to “highly confidential” information. However, Meta has denied this.

It is unclear who will win the conversational social media battle and whether the above lawsuit will have any fruition. What is clear, however, is that Meta has played their hand and waited for the perfect moment to launch their product, one that users wanted and found easy enough to use. Musk needs to find a way to entice users to stick with Twitter, but at the moment, I don’t see what can be done to fight the growth of Threads.