According to co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Threads, Meta’s competitor and home to 10 million sign-ups in only seven hours, is attracting users at an amazing rate. However, the eagerly anticipated new service has an unusual restriction: Deleting a Threads account necessitates deactivating the associated Instagram account.
Meta clarifies in a Supplemental Privacy Policy: “You may deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account.”
The justification is that a Threads profile is a component of the user’s Instagram account, as explained by Meta on the policy page. Many consumers were shocked to learn about this requirement.
https://twitter.com/emilyhughes/status/1676775597735923719
Separate deletion option for Threads account under consideration
A text-based chat software known as Threads has emerged as a prominent competitor to Elon Musk’s social media network Twitter.
On Wednesday, Instagram, the popular photo-sharing network that has more than 2 billion users, began rolling out Threads to users in more than 100 countries across the world. The application, which is the most recent in a line of Twitter competitors that are expanding quickly, is giving off the impression that users want it the most.
In a post on Threads, Zuckerberg outlined his goals for the forthcoming app and defined his vision for it as follows: “I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion people or more on it.” Twitter has had the chance to implement this, but they haven’t quite gotten it right yet. It’s my hope that we will.”
Early on Thursday, Zuckerberg said that the app had already drawn 10 million sign-ups in just seven hours. He shared an emoji that implied his mind had been blown by the reaction the app had received. Threads is the consumer service that is expanding at the highest rate since it is on track to reach 10 million users.
Through their participation in the Threads app, a number of well-known businesses, such as Netflix, Amazon, the National Football League, and Pepsi, have shown their support for the platform. However, several well-known companies, such as Google, Apple, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Disney, are conspicuously absent from the list, at least as of the time the book was published.
An update from Adam Mosseri
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, provided clarification on how the account cancellation process will function after hearing criticism from users over this policy move. He explains that users have the ability to deactivate their Threads account to hide their profile and content, can change their profile to private, or can erase all of their individual threads postings without having to destroy their Instagram account.
However, since Threads and Instagram are now combined into a single account, removing either one will also remove the other. Mosseri continues by saying that the organization is “looking into a way to delete your Threads account separately.”
Elon Musk threatens Meta’s Threads
Twitter’s legal representative Alex Spiro accused Meta in a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday of “systematic, wilful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property” in order to create Threads.
In further detail, Mr. Spiro said that Meta had hired a sizable number of former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information” and who subsequently helped Meta create what he called the “copycat” Threads software.
Twitter declares that it will adamantly protect its intellectual property rights and demands that Meta stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other extremely confidential material.
According to Twitter, “All rights, including but not limited to the ability to seek injunctive action as well as civil remedies at any time, are reserved. Mr. Musk reacted to a tweet that contained the legal disclaimer by saying, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
Andy Stone, a representative for Meta, posted in a thread, “No one on the Threads technical team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not a thing.
Read more:
- Threads: A vanilla platform that can’t embrace Twitter’s energy
- How to install Threads in EU on iOS and Android
- Twitter Vs Threads: How is Threads different than Twitter?
Featured image credit: tamindir