Musk hired advertising executive Linda Yaccarino to steady the ship, but she has not been spared his whimsy.
The Tesla tycoon said last week that he was limiting access to Twitter to ward off AI companies from “scraping” the site to train their technology.
Musk then angered Twitter’s most devoted aficionados by declaring that access to its TweetDeck product – which allows users to view a fast flow of tweets at once – would be for paying customers only.
EU “MANY MONTHS” AWAY
Meta has its legion of critics too, especially in Europe, and despite Instagram’s massive user base, they could slow the site’s development.
The company is criticised mainly for its handling of personal data – the essential ingredient for targeted ads that help it rake in billions of dollars in profits every quarter.
Mosseri said he regretted that the EU launch was delayed, but if Meta had waited for regulatory clarity from Brussels, Threads would remain “many, many, many, months away”.
“I was worried that our window would close, because timing is important,” he added to Platformer, a tech news site.
According to a source close to the matter, Meta was wary of a new law called the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets strict rules for the world’s “gatekeeper” internet companies.
One rule restricts platforms from transferring personal data between products, as would potentially be the case between Threads and Instagram.
Meta was caught out for doing just that after it bought the messaging app WhatsApp, and European regulators will be on high alert to ensure that the company doesn’t do so illegally with Threads.
BACK TO TWITTER?
Globally, the Threads hashtag on Twitter has garnered over a million tweets, with many users jokingly suggesting users would be returning to Twitter.
“10 mins into threads app. Me coming back to Twitter,” one user wrote, sharing a video of a man sprinting.
Another shared an image of Homer Simpson running back and forth between the Twitter and Threads logos.
By midday local time Thursday, Threads was the top trending topic on Japan Twitter, but many users expressed concerns over data privacy.
“Threads is run by Meta, isn’t it? It will definitely leak your real name or the game you are playing, or put you in the list of your workplace company friends,” wrote one user.
Another said: “Meta loves to collect private information and I don’t trust the way it treats private information. I also have the impression that this is a company hated by EU, so I’m reluctant.”
