Threads: Meta’s rival to Elon Musk’s X launches in EU
Meta’s social media app Threads has launched in the European Union, five months after its release in other parts of the world.
It debuted to much fanfare as a rival to Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter.
But it was not made available in the EU, which has strict rules around data and big tech.
Meta will hope it will drive interest in the platform, which gained more than 100 million users in its first week before those numbers drifted down.
A lack of key features, such as a website and search function, affected the platform’s ability to rival others.
Just three weeks after its launch, Meta head Mark Zuckerberg said Threads had lost half of its users.
New features were subsequently released in a bid to lure people back and by October Mr Zuckerberg said the app had regained most of the users it had lost.
It still remains far less popular than other social media platforms such as X, TikTok, or Meta’s other services, Instagram and Facebook.
EU delay
Meta has not officially disclosed why it delayed Threads’ launch in the EU, but it is thought to be because of the bloc’s strict regulations.
A Meta spokesperson told The Verge in July it was down to “upcoming regulatory uncertainty”.
The EU’s Digital Services Act – laws which impose new responsibilities on big tech companies – came into force in August.
They are designed to protect users on large social platforms, and include rules on advertising to children and a requirement for firms to be more transparent about their algorithms with regulators.
Threads asks permission to access lots of data on your device, including location data, purchases and browsing history.
It is not currently known if the app has undergone significant changes to abide by the EU’s laws.
However, in October Meta announced subscription services would be brought into most of Europe that would remove adverts from all its platforms, which it said would address EU concerns.
It came after Meta was fined €390m (£335m) in January for breaking EU data rules around ads.
The subscription model is exclusive to people in the EU, European Economic Area and Switzerland, and is not available in the UK.
