Posted on 07/06/2023 10:00:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
On Wednesday evening, Meta released their “friendly” alternative to Twitter called Threads. Within seven hours of its launch, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg claimed that 10 million people have signed up.
The Instagram-linked competitor (you currently need an Instagram account to sign up for Threads) currently looks more or less just like Twitter. Users can post text-based messages up to 500 characters, as well as videos or photos, and respond to or repost other posts. However, unlike Twitter, direct messaging is currently unavailable, and hashtags are nowhere to be found. Also, if you decide Threads isn’t for you, the only way to delete your account is by axing your entire Instagram account.
[Related: Twitter alternative Bluesky is fun, friendly, and kind of empty.]
The app is apparently available in over 100 countries on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Notably not included is the EU, which recently passed a law to limit how big tech companies can share data. Even in the countries where it is allowed, the app has numerous questionable security policy items—including how the app can collect sensitive personal data, data about your location, and personal health and body data. (At the time of writing, a PopSci staff member was able to create an account from an EU residence.)
Twitter’s user experience has took a downturn since Elon Musk took the helm. Users recently reported inability to read tweets or even access the social media platform. Last Friday, new “temporary limits” put a cap on how many tweets users could see per day, with a boost for premium Twitter Blue users. The website additionally instituted account-only access to the previously free-to-access website, leading to a multitude of problems. Then on Wednesday, Twitter quietly lifted the account-only ban.
There are a number of Twitter alternatives that predate Threads, however none of which have caught fire in the same manner as Meta’s attempt. Mastodon has been slow to attract much of a crowd, while former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s alternative Bluesky remains in a closed beta testing phase.
What is that, wokesters sitting around drinking Bud Light?
Who in the world would trust the Zuck? No, don’t answer that....
Join Gab.com instead. It’s like a combination of Gab and Facebook. It’s honestly the best format for social media. And they even have a Freerepublic group.
“Threads”
A rather fun and cheery movie about nuclear holocaust in the UK. Available free on youtube...
But Musk does suppress free speech, and its not even controversial in nature either. At least I’ve heard others say that to be the case. Now that Musk demands an account, I never go there anymore, whereas I had limited exposure before his latest move.
HARD PASS for me.
Yep. I signed up with Twitter a couple years ago, but it was just a combination of raw stupidity and political/social toxicity. Deactivated my account within about a week.
Threads promises heavy censorship and people who value censorship and no contradicting of their harebrained posts will gravitate toward Threads.
Meta is all about data gathering.
Hey, without sites like Meta and TikTok this selfie nation would probably implode and commit mass suicide.
That movie was pure nightmare fuel. Much more harsh than The Day After.
I’m not on FB or Instagram...can’t stand Fuckerberg - especially after the 2020 election fraud he enabled.
>>Cool, another social media thing I can ignore.<<
That makes two of us.
It’s the liberals’ answer to their prayers to have Twitter back under their control, except it’s not the original Twitter, it’s their attempt to control the argument again, in the form of ‘Threads’, but it should rightfully be called ‘threats; since it’s designed to be the liberals’ opposing platform to Twitter and to ‘free speech’.
Biden can drop his appeal to get that ruling reversed, which forbid the government from controlling free speech in social media sites. Now he and democrats can go back to blocking free speech in their ‘threat’s to free speech.
I saw on Fox this morning that if you want to follow certain folks (conservatives), a prompt will ask you if you’re sure you want to follow that person. That’s BS.
Zuckerbucks helped to do Trump in. Now is the time for Trump to get back on Twitter and steal the thunder from Threads.
“Friendlier?” Since when are totalitarian censors “friendlier”?
Twitter has been imploding for months, with the downturn accelerating in the last couple weeks.
I have a Twitter account that I haven’t looked at in ages and I won’t be signing on to Facebooks’s version, but this new entrant is just another nail in Twitter’s coffin. Fidelity, which invested in its buy-out, has already marked down its stake by over 50%.
NO THANKS. FREE REPUBLIC IS ENOUGH FOR ME.
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