Mark Zuckerberg reveals ‘Twitter killer’ app Threads, escalating Elon Musk feud

The battle of the tech billionaires is set to heat up as Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta delivers what could be a devastating blow to Elon Musk’s Twitter.

Twitter's Elon Musk and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg. Pictures: Joel Saget/AFP and Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP

Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter-like app “Threads” is set to launch on Thursday in a move that will escalate the Meta boss’s growing feud with embattled tech billionaire Elon Musk.

A listing for Threads within Apple’s App Store indicated that the app will be closely tied to Meta-owned Instagram, with users able to keep their same username and retain their followers. The app — which some techies have dubbed the “Twitter killer” — is currently available for pre-order with an “expected” July 6 debut, the New York Post reports. Australian users can pre-download the app on Apple’s AppStore.

Threads is set to directly compete with Twitter, which faced a fresh round of criticism this week over Musk’s decision to temporarily limit the number of tweets users could see per day.

Users can repost, reply and like messages. Picture: Supplied

The app is remarkably similar to Twitter. Picture: Supplied

“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” the app listing said.

Meta’s plan to launch a Twitter clone has clearly rankled Musk, 52, who challenged Zuckerberg to a cage match last month as word of the company’s plan spread.

One Meta executive told employees at a recent meeting that Threads would be “sanely run”, in contrast to Musk-led Twitter.

Musk mocked Meta’s Threads app on Monday night, US time, after user Mario Nawfal shared a post detailing a list of user data that the app would purportedly collect, ranging from purchases to search history and beyond.

“Thank goodness they’re so sanely run,” Musk joked.

Thank goodness they’re so sanely run

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2023

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, also publicly criticised Meta’s plans while sharing a screenshot which detailed Threads’ user privacy.

“All your Threads are belong to us,” Dorsey tweeted. Musk later chimed in to say he agreed with Dorsey’s tweet.

Yeah

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2023

The Meta app’s launch is another headache for Twitter, which has been hampered by sagging revenue, regular service outages and an exodus of advertisers since Musk bought the app for $US44 billion ($65.7 billion) last year.

Threads will be available to download from the App Store on Thursday. Picture: Supplied

It has been branded as an ‘app from Instagram’. Picture: Supplied

Meta did not immediately return a request for comment. In April, Meta said more than three billion people were using at least one of its social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – each day.

Threads isn’t the only Twitter rival to gain steam in recent days.

Bluesky, a new social media start-up backed by Dorsey, saw its traffic in record highs this week after Musk announced the Twitter rate limits.

Musk claimed the rate limits were necessary to address “extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation” on Twitter.

He added that the company was “getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading the user experience.”

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Mark Zuckerberg reveals ‘Twitter killer’ app Threads, escalating Elon Musk feud