Meta Platforms has officially rolled out its new text-based messaging app called Threads, a Twitter-like platform where users can join public conversations and share updates through text, links, photos, and videos.
Built by Meta’s Instagram team as a rival to Twitter, Threads hopes to capture some of the dissatisfied users who left the social media platform after Tesla CEO Elon Musk took the company private for $44 billion in 2022, as reported by The Dallas Express.
When asked whether Threads could become bigger than Twitter, Zuckerberg replied via Threads, “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”
While generating revenue and growing one’s business is the cornerstone for any company or business owner, Musk has said it was never about the money but instead about “helping humanity.”
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk told advertisers after buying the company.
“There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”
He continued, “In the relentless pursuit of clicks, much of traditional media has fueled and catered to those polarized extremes, as they believe that is what brings in the money, but, in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost.”
When Musk took over Twitter and the “Twitter Files” were released, some of the files alleged that federal law enforcement officials worked directly with Twitter’s former safety team to censor Americans, suppress information, and control the COVID-19 narrative.
In an interview on the Joe Rogan Show, Zuckerberg personally admitted that Meta suppressed the infamous Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election at the direct behest of the FBI.
It is unclear if the FBI or other government agencies plan to use the new Threads app for suppression and censorship purposes, but the platform’s launch comes during a rather unusual week.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana granted an injunction blocking multiple federal agencies and Biden administration officials from contacting or working with social media companies about “protected free speech posted on social-media platforms.”
The very next day, the U.S. State Department called off a scheduled meeting with officials from Meta Platforms, along with all future meetings “pending further guidance,” The Washington Post reported.
Biden’s Justice Department spent Wednesday appealing the judge’s order.
On Thursday, Meta launched a new social media platform, pitched as a direct competitor to Twitter.
Meta has been the target of its share of accusations, many concerning privacy violations. In fact, Meta recently settled a $725 million lawsuit relating to the company’s alleged use of Cambridge Analytica to scrape user data for “voter profiling and targeting,” as reported by The Dallas Express.
Data scraping is a problem Twitter has reportedly fallen victim to as well.
Mike Benz, executive director at Foundation For Freedom Online, asserts that data scraping on platforms like Twitter is being used by governments worldwide to develop AI censorship models.
“Wow. Musk has no idea the DARPA rattlesnake he just stepped on by this doing this…,” Benz said about Twitter’s newly instituted rate limits last weekend.
While still too early to tell if Meta’s new social media platform will succeed, Threads had already amassed 10 million users just seven hours after launch, which quickly jumped to 30 million by noon on Thursday, according to Zuckerberg.
For comparison, Twitter presently has over 350 million users, but that number is expected to fall to just over 335 million in 2024.
