[imagesource:zoomnews]

It was once Elon Musk versus Jeff Bezos in the billionaires’ space race, but now it’s Elon versus Mark Zuckerberg in a new social media scuffle.

On Thursday, Meta is set to launch their new app Threads in direct competition with Twitter, as users of the platform owned by Elon seek out alternatives in droves.

The Guardian notes that the Threads app, linked to Instagram, appeared in the Apple app store on Tuesday ahead of Thursday’s launch with a countdown website for the release also set up.

A preview of the “text-based conversation” app says Threads will be a place “where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow”.

“Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things – or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world,” the promotional text says.

One will be able to log into Threads with their Instagram details and carry through all their followers, too. The app also has all the same things that Twitter does, like reposting, liking and allowing users to limit who can reply to posts.

Image: Threads

Meta will join a growing field of platforms, including BlueSky and Mastodon, competing to replace Twitter since Musk took over late last year and the site became more difficult for its estimated 250 million users to access.

Last week, Twitter began requiring users to log in to view the site – previously, people without Twitter profiles could view tweets. It then imposed a limit on the vast majority of users who do not pay for the platform, restricting unverified accounts to viewing 600 tweets a day, later upped to 1,000.

Advertisers, too, have been put off by Musk’s moderation decision, like how he lifted the bans on far-right accounts (Donald Trump, for example), causing them to pause or reduce spending in the past few months.

Almost everyone would rather give up on Twitter:

Meta’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, said during a company-wide meeting there had been demand for a Twitter alternative “from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run”, according to The Verge.

However, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder who is currently working on BlueSky, says that Threads may have an issue with privacy:

All your Threads are belong to us https://t.co/FfrIcUng5O pic.twitter.com/V7xbMOfINt

— jack (@jack) July 4, 2023

What he is pointing out is that Threads can collect data related to your health, financial information, contact information, browsing history, location and purchases, among other things.

Classic.

You won’t hear from Twitter about this situation besides an automated poop emoji response, which is all you get when you send questions to the former press department email address.

Child’s play.

[source:guardian]