{"id":1399,"date":"2023-12-14T11:39:31","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T11:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/threads-metas-rival-to-elon-musks-x-launches-in-eu\/"},"modified":"2023-12-14T11:39:31","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T11:39:31","slug":"threads-metas-rival-to-elon-musks-x-launches-in-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/threads-metas-rival-to-elon-musks-x-launches-in-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"Threads: Meta’s rival to Elon Musk’s X launches in EU"},"content":{"rendered":"

Threads: Meta’s rival to Elon Musk’s X launches in EU<\/p>\n

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By Imran Rahman-Jones and Tom Gerken<\/div>\n
Technology reporters<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Meta’s social media app Threads has launched in the European Union, five months after its release in other parts of the world.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It debuted to much fanfare as a rival to Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But it was not made available in the EU, which has strict rules around data and big tech.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Boss Mark Zuckerberg announced the news with a post on Threads, welcoming new users from across Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A Meta spokesperson said the platform had undergone “significant improvements” since its launch in other countries in July.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A lack of key features, such as a website and search function, had contributed to user initial interest fading.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But a Meta spokesperson said the platform had made“significant improvements” since then, including greater interoperability with Instagram, which the company also owns.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Starting today, people in the EU can choose to create a Threads profile that is connected to their Instagram account – which means they get the same experience as everyone else around the world – or use Threads without a profile,” they said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Just three weeks after its launch, Mr Zuckerberg said Threads had lost half of its users.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The release of new features has helped it claw most of them back – but Threads remains less popular than X, and has many fewer users than TikTok,,or other Meta services Instagram and Facebook.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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EU delay<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A Meta spokesperson told The Verge in July it was down to “upcoming regulatory uncertainty”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The EU’s Digital Services Act – laws which impose new responsibilities on big tech companies – came into force in August. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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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. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Threads asks permission to access lots of data on your device, including location data, purchases and browsing history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It is not currently known if the app has undergone significant changes to abide by the EU’s laws.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It came after Meta was fined \u20ac390m (\u00a3335m) in January for breaking EU data rules around ads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The subscription model is exclusive to people in the EU, European Economic Area and Switzerland, and is not available in the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Related Topics<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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