US-based social media giant Meta has released its Threads app in the European Union after postponing it to comply with regulations.
The Mark Zuckerberg-owned company hopes Threads will compete with X, the former Twitter.
Since its worldwide release, the app has experienced several updates, including the addition of the threads.net website and new functionalities such as “topic following” and post-editing.
Threads’ microblogging application has been available in the US since July but was kept away from Europe due to the EU’s digital regulations.
The European Commission gave the go-ahead for the application and already has its own account on Threads.
Zuckerberg is hopeful Threads will be able to communicate with other social networks, giving users additional options for how they choose to interact online.
He announced the news regarding EU in a post on the platform: “Today we’re opening Threads to more countries in Europe. Greetings to all of you.”
Creating an account on Threads requires users to have an Instagram account. Some wonder whether that might increase the possibility of EU regulatory action over Threads’ relationship with Instagram due to the nature of the app combining user bases and personal data.
With its European launch, Meta is giving users in the EU the option to either browse the platform without an account, which is still necessary for users who want to post on it, or create a Threads account connected to an Instagram account, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Threads has stated it wants to become the “Twitter killer” app but since its launch this summer, when 100 million people signed up, the number of active users on the platform has decreased.
Zuckerberg insisted during earnings calls recently that the platform will eventually reach its target of 1 billion users.
The project is associated with the so-called “fediverse”, an ensemble of social networks which, while independently hosted, can communicate with each other.
Zuckerberg stated on Threads: “Making Threads interoperable will give people more choice over how they interact and it will help content reach more people.
“I have a good feeling about this.”
