Whatever you think about Telsas, Space X, or Musk's home energy solutions, one thing's for sure; Zuckerberg is a complete scumbag. Think Facebook or Instagram are good for kids? Think Mark has tried to whitewash all the harm his products cause?
Of course, the NY Times is happy to whitewash as well. Why? Because they don't want social media to platform anything that's not progressive. Musk threatens that.
Will Twitter be a fair, safe platform that encourages productive debate and exchange of ideas? It's too early to tell, but they deserve a chance. I'd never bet against Musk.
How about Meta's offerings? I don't need to wait. They suck.
Like Twitter, but ‘nice’
To many users, Twitter had become like a bad boyfriend.
By Lauren Jackson, Mouthpiece (oops mean't reporter) for the NY Times.
Under Elon Musk, the platform could be unreliable and unfiltered. Some users called it toxic. They encouraged their followers to get off the platform in protest of Musk’s leadership, including his algorithm changes and decision to reinstate Donald Trump’s account. Other tech companies, like Substack, tried to offer frustrated Twitter users a new place to go, but none was compelling enough to pose a viable alternative — until now.
This week, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, released Threads, its Twitter competitor. It soon became the most rapidly downloaded app ever. More than 70 million users have joined Threads in the last few days, blowing past the audience sizes of Twitter’s other challengers.
Why? Because Meta had something that the other competitors didn’t: two billion existing users whom the company could push to use the new product. People log in to Threads using their Instagram account, rather than having to create a new user name, password and profile photo. Meta has also used its existing platforms to promote Threads.
For people who liked Twitter but didn’t like the changes that Musk put in place, or had grown tired of his antics, the emergence of Threads is exciting. For all its downsides, Twitter did play an important role in many people’s lives, helping them understand the news and stay current on trends in culture.
At the same time, the early success of Threads highlights a recurring problem in the internet economy. A tiny number of gargantuan companies have ever more control over our attention. Twitter, if anything, was too small to be considered part of this club. Meta, by contrast, is a modern behemoth, along with Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple and Microsoft.
“They’re not only the wealthiest corporations that have ever existed, but they’ve institutionalized a new form of profound inequality” in who controls information, Shoshana Zuboff, a privacy expert at Harvard, said. “Threads is simply another property in a global surveillance empire.”
In the rest of today’s newsletter, we’ll explain the basics of Threads, assess its likelihood of long-term success and give you links to more coverage, in The Times and beyond.
What is it?
Threads looks a lot like Twitter. It offers many of the same features: a scrolling feed of posts, some with photos or videos attached, and the ability to repost other users. The feed is a mix of posts from accounts that users follow and those suggested by an algorithm.
But it’s also supposed to have a different vibe. Meta has pitched Threads as a less political version of Twitter, but it’s not clear how the company will maintain that atmosphere.
Many of the platform’s posts have made memes out of the competition between Twitter and Threads. Users have photoshopped the faces of Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, and Musk onto famous fights, like Will Smith slapping Chris Rock. News outlets, like The Guardian and Semafor, joined and started posting their articles. So far, those posts seem indistinguishable from tweets.
But users are having fun on the platform, too. Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez and Tom Brady all created accounts, and many celebrities posted welcome messages. Pitbull said, “Mr. Worldwide checkin in.” And Martha Stewart posted a photo in a pool, saying she was “ready to make a splash.”
Meta’s commitment to keep Threads “positive” is a contrast to Musk’s plan to make Twitter an uncensored platform. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said Meta decided to create the app specifically to respond to “product changes and decisions” that Musk made at Twitter.
The rollout has heightened the rivalry between Zuckerberg and Musk, who have recently been threatening to cage-fight each other. After Threads’ release, Musk claimed he had previously deleted his Instagram account. “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram,” he wrote on Twitter.
Lawyers for Twitter sent Meta a letter threatening legal action, accusing Zuckerberg’s company of using trade secrets to build Threads. The app is also not currently available in the European Union because Meta is not yet sure whether it complies with Europe’s strict privacy rules.
Meta’s advantage
The early success has been a rare recent win for Meta. Facebook and Instagram have struggled to keep up with TikTok, while Zuckerberg’s dreams of creating a “metaverse” have gone mostly unrealized. The company has laid off thousands of employees.
Still, the early momentum for Threads does not guarantee long-term success. Other platforms, like BeReal and Clubhouse, have generated buzz as the future of social media, only to wither.
Again, though, Meta has an advantage that none of those other attempts did: It’s easy to attract users when you already have them.
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