The IT Nerd

Meta’s Twitter killer Threads is now live in most parts of the world. I did think about getting a Threads account just to test it out and joining the 10 million or so users who apparently signed up in the last 10 hours or so. But I have to admit that I have thought twice about doing so and will avoid it like Superman avoids Kryptonite. Here’s why:

• Privacy: As I have mentioned before, Threads appears to be a privacy nightmare. So much so, that Threads didn’t launch in the EU as I am guessing that Meta didn’t want to get smacked by the EU. Given those facts, and Meta’s past behaviour, I would suggest that this is a key reason to avoid Threads.
• Threads was rushed to market: This isn’t a shock as Meta is clearly trying to get something out there to try and kill Twitter. 9to5Mac has a list of some of the notable omissions and failings of Threads. Including the fact that you can’t delete your account without deleting your Instagram account which I think may not an omission but a deliberate design decision. Some of the design issues may change over time, but clearly on top of Threads users being the product as is typical for any Meta product, they’re also beta testers.

There’s one other reason that I am avoiding Threads. We’ve kind of seen this sort of thing before with Google+. If you don’t remember Google+, this will help you to get up to speed. Google+ signed up millions of users very quickly in 2011, but was dead by 2019 as Facebook and other social networks became more popular that it. Thus Threads might be “the new hotness” at the moment. But it doesn’t mean that it will be “the new hotness” long term.

Having said all of that, Threads is a serious threat to Twitter and Elon Musk. And I am sure that Elon is very concerned as he’s shot himself in the foot so many times, it likely won’t take much for a Twitter competitor to come in and yank the rug out from under him. I just question if Threads is the one to do just that. And I most certainly won’t get an account to find out.

This entry was posted on July 6, 2023 at 8:49 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Facebook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.