Explained: What is Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads, and will it kill Elon Musk’s Twitter?

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is cashing in on Elon Musk’s chaotic Twitter reign – here’s everything you need to know about the new social media platform.

Social media giant Meta has launched its Twitter rival Threads, with hopes the new platform will beat out the struggling Elon Musk-owned site.

Millions of people have already signed up to the app after months of frustrations with Musk’s approach since a $66bn takeover of Twitter in late 2022.

After promising to “free the bird” when he acquired the app, “free speech absolutist” Musk’s decision to monetise the platform’s verification program and reduce content moderation has contributed to plummeting stock value and controversy.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, introduced Threads on Thursday as a spin-off of Instagram, giving it a built-in audience of more than two billion users and sparing the new platform the challenge of starting from scratch.

So what is the difference between the two apps, and will Threads find Twitter-level success?

Billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk’s platforms will go head-to-head in the launch of Meta’s new Twitter-like app. Picture: AFP

What is Threads?

Much like Twitter, Threads allows its users to share text-based posts that can be liked, shared and commented on.

Threads went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at 2300 GMT on Wednesday, and early feedback noted its close, but scaled back, resemblance to Twitter.

Users have the ability to share text posts of up to 500 characters including links, photos, carousels and videos of up to 5 minutes to a “scroll style” feed.

Once the Threads app is downloaded, all it takes is a few clicks to drag in a user’s picture and biography from Instagram.

Meta launched its text-based rival to Twitter on Thursday.

Within a few hours, more than 30 million people had downloaded Threads, Meta CEO Zuckerberg said Thursday. It took Twitter 780 days to get to just 10 million users.

Accounts were already active for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and Hugh Jackman, as well as media outlets including The Washington Post and The Economist.

Users trying out the app for the first time were quick to notice that the homepage feed is automatically populated with threads from accounts the app has decided might interest them – similar to TikTok and Twitter ‘For You’ feeds.

Why was it created?

Zuckerberg is taking advantage of Musk‘s chaotic ownership of Twitter to push out the new product, which Meta hopes will become the go-to platform for celebrities, companies and politicians.

Analyst Jasmine Engberg from Insider Intelligence said Threads only needs one out of four Instagram monthly users “to make it as big as Twitter.”

“Twitter users are desperate for an alternative, and Musk has given Zuckerberg an opening,” she added.

Threads hopes to cash in on Musk’s chaotic Twitter reign. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

Twitter users’ frustrations with the Musk-owned platform reached fever pitch earlier this week, when a cap on how many tweets users could view was introduced and one of the platform’s most useful functions, Tweetdeck, was relegated only to paying users.

Zuckerberg signalled that many of those flocking to Threads were doing so because it was a “friendly” platform – almost certainly a reference to accusations Twitter has become an increasingly brutal and less diverse social media space since Musk took the reins.

What happened to Twitter?

Musk’s Twitter has been in free fall since the billionaire’s takeover, with content moderation reduced to a minimum with glitches and rash decisions scaring away celebrities and major advertisers.

He also fired more than half of Twitter's staff, some of whom presumably went to other tech companies, including Meta.

Meta has its legion of critics too, especially in the major market of Europe, which could slow the growth of Threads.

The company has been criticised for its handling of personal data, the essential ingredient for targeted ads that help it rake in billions of dollars in profits.

Elon Musk has threatened to sue Meta over Threads, alleging it poached former Twitter employees to create a copycat app. Picture: AFP

How has Musk responded?

On Thursday, Musk accused Zuckerberg’s Meta of “unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property” in a letter published by online news outlet Semafor.

The letter accused Meta of hiring dozens of former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information.”

Threads is the biggest challenger yet to Musk-owned Twitter, which has seen a series of potential competitors emerge but not yet replace one of the world‘s biggest social media platforms, despite its struggles.

Originally published as Explained: What is Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads, and will it kill Elon Musk’s Twitter?