In a reply to MMA fighter Mark Davis, Mr Zuckerberg said: “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.”
Musk, however, seems not yet to have acknowledged the tweet – or the launch of a new competitor to his Twitter. The last three tweets on his Twitter profile page were somewhat cryptic. He said, in separate and unlinked tweets, that he “Must confess to a deep love of fashion & architecture”, said “thank you very much” in Japanese – and “God bless America”.
Users of the Zuckerberg’s new app will be able to use their Instagram login to get started and, like on the picture-sharing platform, can follow and connect with friends and influencers with similar interests. In the UK, all under 18s will be defaulted onto a private profile when they join.
Someone’s feed on the app includes threads from people they follow as well as recommended content from creators they have not yet heard of. Threads posts can be shared on a user’s Instagram story and as a link on other platforms.
People can control who mentions them and who can reply to them on the new app, replies to threads containing specific words can be filtered out and other users can be unfollowed, blocked, restricted and reported. Any accounts a user has blocked on Instagram will automatically be blocked on the new app.
Instagram’s safety guidelines will be enforced on the new platform, Meta said. Eventually, the California-based company wants it to be possible for people without a Threads account to interact on the platform, which it hopes will usher in a “new era of diverse and interconnected networks”. If and when this happens, if a user has a public profile their posts will be accessible from other apps while if they have a private one they will have to approve new followers.
