Meta delays EU launch of Twitter rival Threads amid uncertainty over personal data use | Social media

Mark Zuckerberg’s rival to Twitter will not launch in the EU on Thursday amid regulatory uncertainty about the service’s use of personal data.

Sources at Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, pointed to regulations as the reason for the postponement of an EU launch, amid a series of clashes between the social media group and the bloc.

It is understood that the key issue for the Twitter competitor, called Threads, is the implementation of the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which contains provisions on sharing user data across different platforms. Meta is awaiting further clarification from the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, on how the legislation will be implemented before considering its next steps.

Threads is still expected to launch in the UK and US on Thursday and is being advertised on Apple’s app store, which shows a service with a Twitter-like interface. Typing “Threads” into Instagram also leads to a countdown timer that expires at 10am ET (3pm BST), implying a morning launch in the US.

Elon Musk, who owns Twitter, has been quick to flag the amount of data that may be collected by Threads, pointing to the app store’s listing of the kinds of information that “may be collected” by the app. The list includes “location” and “search history”.

Musk wrote on Twitter “thank goodness they’re so sanely run”, a reference to a Meta executive who said last month that creators and public figures had expressed interested in joining a Twitter-like platform that was “sanely run”.

However, Twitter’s own website also acknowledges that the platform collects user data such as location, the device you use and interactions with other users’ content.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and backer of another rival service called Bluesky, posted a picture of Threads’ app store listing on Tuesday with the quip “all your Threads are belong to us”.

Two recent rulings against Meta have created problems for the company’s operations across the EU. This week the European court of justice upheld the right for EU watchdogs to investigate privacy breaches in a ruling that said user consent was needed before using their personal data to target them with adverts.

It followed an EU ruling in May ordering Facebook to stop transferring user data to the US – which could lead to the social media network shutting its European services.