X

Skip to Main Content Technology Threads was built by the Instagram team, so Instagram users can log into Threads through their Instagram account. This photo, taken in New York, Thursday, July 6, 2023, shows Meta's new app Threads. Meta unveiled the app to rival Twitter, targeting users looking for an alternative to the social media platform owned — and frequently changed — by Elon Musk. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) AP By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, Associated Press July 7, 2023 NEW YORK (AP) — Threads, a text-based app built by Meta to rival Twitter, is live. The app, billed as the text version of Meta’s photo-sharing platform Instagram, became available Wednesday night to users in more than 100 countries — including the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada, and Japan. Despite some early glitches, 30 million people had signed up before noon on Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Threads. New arrivals to the platform include celebrities like Oprah, pop star Shakira, and chef Gordon Ramsay — as well as corporate accounts from Taco Bell, Netflix, Spotify, the Washington Post, and other media outlets. Threads, which Meta says provides “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations,” arrives at a time when

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., departs court in San Francisco, California, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023. Marlena Sloss | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAttorneys for Elon Musk filed suit this week against the law firm that represented Twitter when Musk was trying to take the company private last year, claiming the firm charged too much for its work. The lawsuit says Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz, which was Twitter's firm prior to Musk's acquisition, racked up a $90 million "last minute" legal bill. Wachtell represented Twitter after Musk reneged on his initial offer to take Twitter private for $44 billion. The law firm helped close the deal in November 2022, and was paid that $90 million fee for its work securing the transaction, which was tendered at a significant premium to Twitter's public market valuation.X Corp., Twitter's holding company, is seeking repayment of "any associated excess fee payment" and attorneys' fees associated with the cost of litigation. Musk's company is represented by Reid Collins & Tsai, a litigation boutique based in Austin, Texas.Attorneys at Reid Collins and Wachtell didn't respond to requests for comment. It's not the first time Musk has tried to keep Twitter's vendors from getting

If Threads truly is a Twitter-killer then it claims it is going to do it with “kindness”. Mark Zuckerberg, whose company Meta launched the rival platform this week, put forward the idea that positivity would be a big difference for a product that looks remarkably similar to its rival.“We are definitely focusing on kindness and making this a friendly place,” he wrote on his Threads account.He added that Twitter had underachieved because it failed to stay positive and that being “friendly” would be key to the success of the new service, although one amicable exchange between the Meta chief and a mixed martial arts professional on Thursday served as a reminder to users that Zuckerberg recently accepted Elon Musk’s offer of a cage fight.Turning negative into positiveThe focus on positivity, from a company well used to content controversies of its own, is a telling indication of how the tech industry views Twitter’s performance under Musk’s ownership. Twitter is threatening to sue Meta over what it has described as a “copycat app” but if there is one thing Zuckerberg is keen to avoid replicating, it’s the negativity stalking that platform.When Musk took over Twitter in a $44bn (£38bn) deal last October

Twitter threatens to sue Meta over Threads - SemaforNumerous competitors to Twitter exist alreadyMeta's Zuckerberg says monetization path is unclearJuly 6 (Reuters) - Meta's Threads racked up more than 30 million sign-ups within about 18 hours of its launch, emerging as the first real threat to Elon Musk-owned Twitter, as it took advantage of its access to billions of Instagram users and a similar look to that of its rival.Dubbed as the "Twitter-Killer", Threads was the top free app on Apple's App Store in the UK and the U.S. on Thursday. Its arrival comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Musk have traded barbs for months, even threatening to fight each other in a real-life mixed martial arts cage match in Las Vegas."The cage match has started, and Zuckerberg delivered a major blow. In many ways, it's exactly what you'd expect from Meta: Stellar execution and an easy-to-navigate user interface," Insider Intelligence principal analyst Jasmine Enberg said.Twitter responded on Thursday by threatening to sue Meta, according to the publication Semafor, citing a letter delivered to Zuckerberg by a lawyer for Twitter. Twitter was not immediately available for comment. Reuters could not immediately verify the Semafor report.Meta said no one

Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker

FILE - A Twitter app icon on a mobile phone is displayed April 26, 2017, in Philadelphia. TikTok and Instagram users can scroll with abandon. But Twitter owner Elon Musk has put new curfews on his digital town square, the latest drastic change to the social media platform that could further drive away advertisers and undermine its cultural influence as a trend-setter. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)(AP/Matt Rourke) The unexpected placement of limits on how many tweets a Twitter user can read in a day caught many off guard last week, including D.C.-area public agencies that rely on the social media site to communicate with those they serve.Twitter owner Elon Musk has limited the number of tweets that users can view each day in an attempt to “prevent unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data from the social media platform,” The Associated Press reported. “I was thrown for a little bit of a loop,” said Pete Piringer, chief spokesperson for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service. He said part of his job is catching up on — and in some cases, retweeting — information from other agencies on the county, state and local level. So, Piringer was shocked when he received the

Meta plans to launch its new Twitter rival, Threads, on July 6, only days after Twitter’s “rate limit” debacle, which has temporarily capped how many posts users can read daily.The platform, which is heavily tied to the photo and video-sharing social network Instagram, is expected to be released on Thursday, according to a Meta-launched countdown site. Threads has also appeared for pre-order on Apple’s App Store, with an expected release date of July 6.Screenshot of Threads’ listing on the Apple App Store. Source: AppleDespite an arguably well-timed launch, the app appears to have seen limited fanfare, at least from Twitter’s avid crypto community. Concerns have been raised around data mining and privacy issues, as well as a lack of confidence that the standalone app would survive. Crypto Twitter influencer Tiffany Fong, who has 66,600 followers on the platform, told Cointelegraph she hadn’t even heard of Threads until now, stating, “I have no clue what the Meta alternative is.” Fong has an active Instagram account with 10,400 followers. Meanwhile, an ongoing Twitter poll from crypto influencer Kyle Chassé, a self-proclaimed “Bitcoin and crypto OG,” has seen over 87% of the 125 respondents signal support for “Team Twitter” over “Team Meta.” META

Pay up, or we're taking away more features. Credit: NurPhoto/Getty Images You've likely heard of the carrot and stick routine. When you need to coerce people into doing something, shower them with gifts (carrots) on one end, and beat them with a stick (punish them for unwanted behavior) on the other. Elon Musk is certainly familiar with this method; ever since he took over Twitter, he's tried all he could to get users to switch to the $8 per month Twitter Blue subscription tier. He's offered all sorts of carrots to subscribers, including the ability to edit tweets, post longer tweets and videos, and proudly wear the blue checkmark on their profiles. On the stick end of the bargain, Musk's Twitter has been taking away things from those who don't pay. The blue checkmark used to be a way to tell which accounts were verified and real; now it's a way to tell who's paid to use the platform. In March, non-subscribers lost one means of two-factor authentication, an important security feature. Perhaps most importantly, verified (paid) accounts are prioritized in conversations and search, making it a lot harder for free accounts to get visibility on the platform. One feature

If you can't beat them, copy them.That's generally been Mark Zuckerberg's go-to strategy when it comes to dealing with upstart competitors to his social media empire. Long gone are the days when Instagram was just a feed of photos as was its original vision, with two of its now marquee features ripped straight from Snapchat (Stories) and TikTok (Reels).Other cases of cherry-picking from the wider web haven't gone so smoothly - you might not even have heard of Bulletin, a Substack-like service for subscription newsletters; or Sparked, an online dating service; both of which got shut down before they got close to rivalling their obvious sources of inspiration.But with Threads, another new app from Meta, this time clearly taking after Twitter, there's reason to believe Zuckerberg is bullish about its chances of catching on - and in a big way. Launching on Thursday after months of rumours, it's been billed as a text-focused platform "where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what'll be trending tomorrow".It sounds - and certainly looks - incredibly familiar, almost shamelessly so.Read more:Why are so many apps adopting the same look? Image: A preview of the Threads app

It's the the latest victim of CEO Elon Musk's attempts to make you pay for Twitter. Credit: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images You'll soon have to pay to use TweetDeck, with Twitter announcing that the previously free app is being turned into a Twitter Blue exclusive. It's the last straw that has some users considering jumping ship to Twitter alternatives such as Bluesky or Meta's upcoming Threads app."We have just launched a new, improved version of TweetDeck," the official Twitter Support account announced on Monday. "In 30 days, users must be Verified to access TweetDeck." Mashable did not reach out to Twitter for comment, as the company's press email has been set to auto-respond to all inquiries with a poop emoji since March. Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) The news that TweetDeck will soon only be available to paid subscribers was tacked onto Twitter's announcement that it is launching a new version of the supplemental app.Current TweetDeck users can carry over their saved searches, lists, columns, and workflows when switching to the new version, though you'll only have one chance to do so — if you decide not to take this option you'll have