Meta’s microblogging platform is set for launch, with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey pointing out the apps centralization and data harvesting.
Meta is planning to launch its new Twitter rival, Threads, on July 6, only days after Twitter’s “rate limit” debacle which has temporarily capped how many posts users can read per day.
The platform, which is heavily tied to the photo and video-sharing social network Instagram, is expected to be released on Thursday according to a Meta-launched countdown site. Threads has also appeared for pre-order on Apple’s App Store bearing an expected date of July 6.
Despite an arguably well-timed launch, the app appears to have seen limited fanfare, at least from Twitter’s avid crypto community.
Concerns have been raised around data mining and privacy issues and a lack of confidence the standalone app would even survive.
Crypto Twitter influencer Tiffany Fong, who has 66,600 followers on the platform, told Cointelegraph she hadn’t even heard of Threads until now, stating “I have no clue what the Meta alternative is.” Fong has an active Instagram account with 10,400 followers.
Meanwhile, an ongoing Twitter poll from crypto influencer Kyle Chassé, a self-proclaimed “Bitcoin and crypto OG” has seen over 87% of the 125 respondents signal support for “Team Twitter” over “Team Meta.”
META IS ABOUT TO RELEASE 'THREADS' ON JULY 7th
Which team are you on?
— Kyle Chassé (@kyle_chasse) July 4, 2023
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey highlighted the Threads app privacy policy which indicated that Threads developer, Instagram Inc, would have access to a wide array of user data including financial info and identifiers.
All your Threads are belong to us https://t.co/FfrIcUng5O pic.twitter.com/V7xbMOfINt
— jack (@jack) July 4, 2023
However, Twitter has almost exactly the same permissions as Threads and collects similar data, according to researchers who responded to Dorsey’s post.
Others have raised concerns over the possible longevity of the app given Meta’s previous standalone app launches have either been shut down or had the features rolled into its other products.
“What Meta doesn’t want you to remember is that they already shut down Threads back in Dec 2021 after shutting down another standalone app called Direct,” said Nick St. Pierre, a Twitter user that posts about artificial intelligence developments.
“They have a history of releasing standalone apps for attention, shutting them down, then rolling the features into [Instagram].”
Related: Twitter suspends memecoin-linked AI bot after Elon Musk’s ‘scam crypto’ claim
Meta’s expected Threads launch would come just days after Twitter’s rate limit debacle, which has imposed a temporary restriction on the number of posts that a user can view in a day.
Instead of users having to rebuild a following from scratch, Threads will port Instagram users’ followers and following lists.
According to reports earlier this year, a company spokesperson said that the stand-alone Threads app will support ActivityPub, the decentralized social networking protocol powering Twitter rival Mastodon.
Meanwhile, decentralized Twitter rival Mastodon has seen a recent surge in activity with an increase in active users since Twitter imposed its read restrictions.
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