By Chris Vallance & James Clayton
Technology reporters, BBC News
Ten million users signed up for Meta's newly launched Threads app in its first seven hours, the company's chief Mark Zuckerberg says.
He pitched the app as a "friendly" rival to Twitter, which was bought by Elon Musk in October.
Experts say Threads could attract Twitter users unhappy with recent changes to the platform.
Threads allows users to post up to 500 characters, and has many features similar to Twitter.
Earlier, Mr Zuckerberg said keeping the platform "friendly... will ultimately be the key to its success"
But Mr Musk responded: "It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram."
When asked on Threads whether the app will be "bigger than Twitter", Mr Zuckerberg said: "It'll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it.
"Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn't nailed it. Hopefully we will."
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66112648
Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says
Threads, Meta’s Twitter rival, is drawing users at an astounding pace, amassing 10 million signups in just seven hours, according to co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. But the highly-anticipated new service, which requires an Instagram account for onboarding, features an intriguing stipulation: Deleting a Threads account requires deleting the linked Instagram account.
In a ‘Supplemental Privacy Policy,’ Meta explains: “You may deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account.”
The rationale, Meta elaborates on the policy page, is that a Threads profile is part of the user’s Instagram account. The discovery of this stipulation has surprised many users.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/06/t.../07/06/threads-delete-profile-instagram-meta/
