Meta's New Social Media App Threads Challenges Twitter Amidst its Policy Changes

Grace Edwards 06 Jul 2023

Twitter, the popular microblogging platform, has recently made some controversial changes, including daily tweet rate limits and requiring users to log in to view tweets. As these changes continue to bewilder users, Meta, previously known as Facebook, is gearing up to launch Threads, a new social media application. In a strategic move, Twitter appears to be reversing some of these modifications in response to the imminent debut of Threads.

As reported by TechCrunch, Twitter now allows users to view tweets without an account, and tweet preview links are becoming functional again in other apps like Slack, WhatsApp, and iMessage. Former Twitter CEO Elon Musk claims that these restrictions were introduced to fight against high levels of data scraping and system manipulation. He termed this as a "temporary emergency measure" in response to significant data breach issues that were impacting regular users' experience on the platform. Google's decision to curtail Twitter's access to its cloud hosting services may have also played a role in these policy changes, stemming from Twitter's reported failure to pay its bills.

On the other hand, Meta is set to launch its social media app Threads on July 6, 2023. Meta describes Threads as a "stand-alone decentralized social network for sharing text updates." It provides a separate space for creators and public figures to share updates about their interests. Threads bear a striking resemblance to Twitter, with like, comment, repost, and share buttons at the bottom of each post. Users can also transfer their current Instagram follower list to avoid cluttering their news feed and reserve their Instagram username if they already have an account.

With the launch of Threads, Meta appears to be directly competing with Twitter, potentially providing an alternative for users discontented with Twitter's ever-changing policies and questionable decisions. Whether Threads will succeed where other Twitter clones have failed – replacing Twitter as a preferred social media platform – remains to be seen.