The Twitter-Motomoron Devil: Opening a Twitter Account via a Facebook-Instagram Extension of Musk’s Message
The platform arrives at an important moment for the company. Musk’s recent announcement that free Twitter accounts would, temporarily, only be able to view 600 tweets per day was met with derision. The crisis that’s been ongoing throughout Musk’s tenure will likely be worsened by these moves.
Early data suggests as much: Threads, which is directly linked to users’ Instagram accounts, saw 10 million sign-ups in its first seven hours, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Meta has a pitch for Threads, that it’s the devil.
Clicking on a button will reply to, quote or like the thread. The number of likes and replies on each post is displayed below its content. Public or private accounts can be used.
Meta already has more than 3 billion users across its stable of apps (which include Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp), and is making it easy for its existing users to start a new account.
After downloading the new app, existing Instagram users have the option of importing standard set-up functions, including their bio, username, profile photo and follow list.
Mark Zucki, the CEO of Threads, the founder of Twitter, has complained about the censorship of his content on Twitter and other social media platforms
As of midday Tuesday, more than 30 million people had taken that step to join the app, which is nearly 30 times the number of people who are involved on Mastodon and Post.
The users include celebrities like chef Gordan Ramsay, actor Zac Efron and pop star Shakira. Brands like Airbnb, Netflix, Marvel Studios and Spotify were using Threads, as were news outlets like CBS, Vox and Vogue.
Since it was found that it had long been over reporting its monthly active user count, there is no need to provide regular disclosures of its user numbers. The company had over 300 million monthly users.
Mark Zucki could easily have launched Threads around that time. In 2008 he tried to buy himself an account on the micro-Blogging site.
Since Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion, he has struggled to transform the platform into a profitable venture, slashing the number of employees and implementing erratic policy changes that have alienated some of Twitter’s most loyal users.
Just last weekend, Musk announced a temporary cap on the number of tweets that non-paying users could view each day. Twitter also made it impossible to view tweets unless a user was signed into the platform, a move that was quickly reversed.
At a time when advertising spending has plummeted, each new policy change sparks a wave of controversy, all at a time when the platform’s reputation is in tatters.
Musk has not yet responded to NPR’s request for comment on the Threads launch, but he previously referred to its sister app, Instagram, as “weak sauce.”
He wrote on Thursday that it is better to be attacked by strangers on social media than to be happy about it.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/06/1186191438/threads-twitter-instagram-musk-zuckerberg
What Makes Threads? When Zuckerberg and Meta took the lead on Threads — How to Make It Work for Facebook and other Social Media Platforms
The app’s financial stability is also in question. Meta laid off tens of thousands of workers as the tech industry as a whole slows down and, in particular, Facebook’s virtual reality venture, the Metaverse, invested billions in.
The platform is not currently showing ads, but once it is running smoothly and on a path to 1 billion people, the platform will start showing ads.
Threads wants the app to work in the so-called “fediverse” universe of apps that share similar communication rules. This is appealing to creators or people with a lot of followers who are hesitant to start over on a new platform.
But in the end, the element that might make or break Threads could be outside it’s control: whether its users build it into the culture they’re craving.
In some of his earliest missives on the platform, Zuckerberg said he was focused on making Threads “a friendly place,” adding that that would “ultimately be the key to its success.”
Tech users might say that the man has played this game before. He tried to replicate the ephemerality of social networks with features like Stories or the scroll of TikTok. Neither feature was bettered out by the competition.
When it comes to getting users in the habit of posting on Threads, one of the app’s biggest weaknesses may be the very thing that might make the launch a success: the strength of the Meta brand.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/06/1186191438/threads-twitter-instagram-musk-zuckerberg
What Happens When Social Media Goes Decentralized: The Mastodon App and the Unsaved Uncle Problem ‘Thou Announced’
When all of your family and friends are able to see you on social media, it’s called the terrible uncle problem. “Younger people, especially, are turned off a platform where they feel like they have to censor what they’re saying.”
With the backing of Meta, Threads has a team of engineers that volunteer-run networks like Mastodon can’t rival. People can also post Threads directly to their Instagram stories. And, according to a post yesterday from Instagram head Adam Mosseri, Threads will eventually have support for ActivityPub, the protocol behind Mastodon, which would let people take their followers to another service if they leave Threads or the app ever shuts down.
The app was listed on the Apple App Store, but it appeared to be a work in progress. Like all iOS apps, the listing included details about the user data the app is designed to collect and track. And observers couldn’t help but notice that this brand-new app was already listing a whopping 14 categories of data that “may be collected and linked to your identity.”
Meta says that Threads will start supporting ActivityPub “soon,” a descriptor that doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence. The company has already spent years, for example, working on its longtime promise of default end-to-end encryption on Messenger. But incorporating decentralization into Threads, and specifically supporting ActivityPub, has reportedly been a core aspect of Meta’s vision for the app from the beginning. Meta has also already sketched out details of the plan in its supplemental privacy policy for Threads.
“The fact that large platforms are adopting ActivityPub is not only validation of the movement towards decentralized social media, but a path forward for people locked into these platforms to switch to better providers. Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko wrote in a post on his website ahead of Threads’ launch that it puts pressure on the platforms to provide better, less exploitative services.