Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter clone, Threads, is trumpeting an explosive start with 10 million signups in just seven hours, but users are surprised to learn about a catch built in to the new platform. People that set up a Threads profile and decided to delete it learned that doing so will delete their Instagram account as well.
TechCrunch reports that Threads, Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter clone, has been officially launched by Facebook (now known as Meta). The app, which requires an Instagram account for signup, has seen a rapid influx of users since its launch, boasting of 10 million users in about seven hours. However, the platform’s unique account deletion policy has raised eyebrows among its user base.
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In a ‘Supplemental Privacy Policy,’ Facebook explains, “You may deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account.” The company further elaborates that a Threads profile is part of the user’s Instagram account, hence the linked deletion policy.
The discovery of this stipulation has surprised many users. One user, Emily Hughes, took to Twitter to express her surprise, saying, “I deactivated my threads account already but it turns out you can’t delete your threads account without also deleting your Instagram account so maybe just don’t sign up!”
I deactivated my threads account already but it turns out you can’t delete your threads account *without also deleting your Instagram account* so maybe just don’t sign up!
— emily hughes ✨ (@emilyhughes) July 6, 2023
Despite the unusual deletion policy, Threads has seen significant support from major brands. Netflix, Amazon, NFL, and Pepsi have all signed up to the app, expressing their vote of confidence in the platform. However, some major names — Google, Apple, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Disney — remain mysteriously absent.
Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, has high hopes for the new app. In a Threads post, he stated, “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.”
Facebook promises that Threads will be “sanely run,” which can be understood as a euphemism for more censorship than Twitter. Despite its moderation policies, one thing became clear this week — the Threads app with suck up all your personal data. It is, after all, a Facebook product.
Read more at TechCrunch here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan