It is finally here. The Meta group (Facebook, Instagram), owned by American billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, launched its social network Threads in Europe this Thursday, December 14, a direct rival to X (formerly Twitter), which was until now unavailable on the continent. “Today we are opening Threads to more countries in Europe. Welcome everyone,” wrote the group’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, on his Threads account.
Clarifying the European regulation
If Threads had quickly recorded tens of millions of registrations around the world from July, its date of going online, the application had until now remained inaccessible to users in the EU. Meta wanted to first clarify the implications of the European regulation on digital markets (DMA), which tightens the rules with the aim of curbing anti-competitive practices.
“In order to comply with European regulations”, the group offered an additional option reserved for users in the EU and the European Economic Area by allowing them to consult Threads even without an Instagram account, but with reduced functions. On the other hand, as in the rest of the world, only Instagram users (two billion in total) can create a Threads account and the two accounts are linked.
“Citizens of the European Economic Area (the 27 of the EU, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein) will be able to choose to create a Threads profile linked to their Instagram account, which will allow them to benefit from the same experience as every other citizen of the world, or to use Threads without a profile. In the latter case, users will not be able to “interact with the content,” Meta said. They will, however, be able to “browse content in the Threads app, search for accounts, share content via copying links or platform sharing, and report Threads content.”