Thursday, July 6th 2023
Meta Launches Threads to Take on Twitter
Mark Zuckerberg just announced the initial version of Threads, an app built by the Instagram team for sharing with text. Whether you're a creator or a casual poster, Threads offers a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations. We are working toward making Threads compatible with the open, interoperable social networks that we believe can shape the future of the internet.
Instagram is where billions of people around the world connect over photos and videos. Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas. Just like on Instagram, with Threads you can follow and connect with friends and creators who share your interests - including the people you follow on Instagram and beyond. And you can use our existing suite of safety and user controls.
Join the Conversation from Instagram
It's easy to get started with Threads: simply use your Instagram account to log in. Your Instagram username and verification will carry over, with the option to customize your profile specifically for Threads.
Everyone who is under 16 (or under 18 in certain countries) will be defaulted into a private profile when they join Threads. You can choose to follow the same accounts you do on Instagram, and find more people who care about the same things you do. The core accessibility features available on Instagram today, such as screen reader support and AI-generated image descriptions, are also enabled on Threads.
Your feed on Threads includes threads posted by people you follow, and recommended content from new creators you haven't discovered yet. Posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length. You can easily share a Threads post to your Instagram story, or share your post as a link on any other platform you choose.
Tune Out the Noise
We built Threads with tools to enable positive, productive conversations. You can control who can mention you or reply to you within Threads. Like on Instagram, you can add hidden words to filter out replies to your threads that contain specific words. You can unfollow, block, restrict or report a profile on Threads by tapping the three-dot menu, and any accounts you've blocked on Instagram will automatically be blocked on Threads.
As with all our products, we're taking safety seriously, and we'll enforce Instagram's Community Guidelines on content and interactions in the app. Since 2016 we've invested more than $16 billion in building up the teams and technologies needed to protect our users, and we remain focused on advancing our industry-leading integrity efforts and investments to protect our community.
Compatible with Interoperable Networks
Soon, we are planning to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub, the open social networking protocol established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the body responsible for the open standards that power the modern web. This would make Threads interoperable with other apps that also support the ActivityPub protocol, such as Mastodon and WordPress - allowing new types of connections that are simply not possible on most social apps today. Other platforms including Tumblr have shared plans to support the ActivityPub protocol in the future.
We're committed to giving you more control over your audience on Threads - our plan is to work with ActivityPub to provide you the option to stop using Threads and transfer your content to another service. Our vision is that people using compatible apps will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa, ushering in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks. If you have a public profile on Threads, this means your posts would be accessible from other apps, allowing you to reach new people with no added effort. If you have a private profile, you'd be able to approve users on Threads who want to follow you and interact with your content, similar to your experience on Instagram.
The benefits of open social networking protocols go well beyond the ways people can follow each other. Developers can build new types of features and user experiences that can easily plug into other open social networks, accelerating the pace of innovation and experimentation. Each compatible app can set its own community standards and content moderation policies, meaning people have the freedom to choose spaces that align with their values. We believe this decentralized approach, similar to the protocols governing email and the web itself, will play an important role in the future of online platforms.
Threads is Meta's first app envisioned to be compatible with an open social networking protocol - we hope that by joining this fast-growing ecosystem of interoperable services, Threads will help people find their community, no matter what app they use.
What's Next
We're rolling out Threads today in more than 100 countries for iOS and Android, and people in those countries can download the app from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
In addition to working toward making Threads compatible with the ActivityPub protocol, soon we'll be adding a number of new features to help you continue to discover threads and creators you're interested in, including improved recommendations in feed and a more robust search function that makes it easier to follow topics and trends in real time.
We're excited to hear your feedback as we work to build new features and introduce fun new ways to connect on the app.
[Editor's note: Threads is currently not available in the EU due to Meta waiting for upcoming privacy legislation from the union.]
Source:
Threads
Instagram is where billions of people around the world connect over photos and videos. Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas. Just like on Instagram, with Threads you can follow and connect with friends and creators who share your interests - including the people you follow on Instagram and beyond. And you can use our existing suite of safety and user controls.
It's easy to get started with Threads: simply use your Instagram account to log in. Your Instagram username and verification will carry over, with the option to customize your profile specifically for Threads.
Everyone who is under 16 (or under 18 in certain countries) will be defaulted into a private profile when they join Threads. You can choose to follow the same accounts you do on Instagram, and find more people who care about the same things you do. The core accessibility features available on Instagram today, such as screen reader support and AI-generated image descriptions, are also enabled on Threads.
Your feed on Threads includes threads posted by people you follow, and recommended content from new creators you haven't discovered yet. Posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length. You can easily share a Threads post to your Instagram story, or share your post as a link on any other platform you choose.
Tune Out the Noise
We built Threads with tools to enable positive, productive conversations. You can control who can mention you or reply to you within Threads. Like on Instagram, you can add hidden words to filter out replies to your threads that contain specific words. You can unfollow, block, restrict or report a profile on Threads by tapping the three-dot menu, and any accounts you've blocked on Instagram will automatically be blocked on Threads.
As with all our products, we're taking safety seriously, and we'll enforce Instagram's Community Guidelines on content and interactions in the app. Since 2016 we've invested more than $16 billion in building up the teams and technologies needed to protect our users, and we remain focused on advancing our industry-leading integrity efforts and investments to protect our community.
Compatible with Interoperable Networks
Soon, we are planning to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub, the open social networking protocol established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the body responsible for the open standards that power the modern web. This would make Threads interoperable with other apps that also support the ActivityPub protocol, such as Mastodon and WordPress - allowing new types of connections that are simply not possible on most social apps today. Other platforms including Tumblr have shared plans to support the ActivityPub protocol in the future.
We're committed to giving you more control over your audience on Threads - our plan is to work with ActivityPub to provide you the option to stop using Threads and transfer your content to another service. Our vision is that people using compatible apps will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa, ushering in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks. If you have a public profile on Threads, this means your posts would be accessible from other apps, allowing you to reach new people with no added effort. If you have a private profile, you'd be able to approve users on Threads who want to follow you and interact with your content, similar to your experience on Instagram.
The benefits of open social networking protocols go well beyond the ways people can follow each other. Developers can build new types of features and user experiences that can easily plug into other open social networks, accelerating the pace of innovation and experimentation. Each compatible app can set its own community standards and content moderation policies, meaning people have the freedom to choose spaces that align with their values. We believe this decentralized approach, similar to the protocols governing email and the web itself, will play an important role in the future of online platforms.
Threads is Meta's first app envisioned to be compatible with an open social networking protocol - we hope that by joining this fast-growing ecosystem of interoperable services, Threads will help people find their community, no matter what app they use.
What's Next
We're rolling out Threads today in more than 100 countries for iOS and Android, and people in those countries can download the app from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
In addition to working toward making Threads compatible with the ActivityPub protocol, soon we'll be adding a number of new features to help you continue to discover threads and creators you're interested in, including improved recommendations in feed and a more robust search function that makes it easier to follow topics and trends in real time.
We're excited to hear your feedback as we work to build new features and introduce fun new ways to connect on the app.
[Editor's note: Threads is currently not available in the EU due to Meta waiting for upcoming privacy legislation from the union.]
75 Comments on Meta Launches Threads to Take on Twitter
Can it?
Frankly, anybody that uses social media as a source of fact needs to go back to the classroom and read some books.
Anyway - meh.
Simply put, the algorithms that drive these services have no deescalation button, because that would kill the revenue streams.
People really don't need 'this voice' at all. It harms more than it solves. There is a massive paradox happening in front of our eyes, driven by infinite information streams to generate ad revenue.
This was and is about money, everything else is secondary.
www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-says-twitter-video-app-smart-tvs-is-coming-2023-06-17/
Pfew. You're in deep. You really don't see the problem with what you just said? Or with the general stance that it matters for a social medium who the CEO is? Mind. Blown. Twitter was a cesspool, and continues to be one.
Why would this be any different?
See, these are the things we should read about on social media - normal folks being idiots.
Later people will missunderstand if making a thread means in a forum, or on facebooks twitter plattform.
same as with Discord. When you ask someone „dc?“ it usally meant before that someone has a disconnect and not nowdays that someone asks you to join Discord to talk.
Its not a debate with actual standpoints and arguments, its just fearmongering to get what they want which is more power and money, thats it.He handed over emails for everyone to read and that is what you call transparency?
sooo can you give me all your accounts and passwords then so I can see into that?
or was it all just work related stuff? and surely you have read all of that so can you tell me what wisdom you gathered from it?
and who was this "respectable journalist" and what makes them respectable?
Case in point: a few years back, some guy posted a paper about 'X' (I'm not mentioning what 'X' was). It ran counter to all the available data. But I checked out the 'scientific paper' the guy had linked to back his exceptionally off-base claim. The paper they quoted was from a journal that doesn't do peer review (makes it practically irrelevant - peer review is essential for scientific critique). Still, I looked at the paper. It was pretty wild, but still, it looked like science - it used all the buzzwords. I then dug further, and researched the lead author. Another paper they had submitted (which was later removed by the journal, presumably as soon as they saw it) claimed proof of a massive black hole at the centre of the earth. The paper was from a wack job scientist. A literal mad scientist. But someone was using it to claim proof of their point above the overwhelming consensus of peer-reviewed data.
What then often follows, is that the person whose point is disproven (at least by any emperical metric), claims a conspiracy. I mean, what the hell do you say to reply to that. Debate is fine, but debate itself is a skill using reason and logic to win an argument. Also, this is really important - the skill to debate is not to tell the entire truth, but to win the debate. A skilled speaker can make people believe the weirdest shit. And with a partisan audience of triggered individuals, it's easy to spread lies.
So again, social media is better for talking about pizza, not politics. I call a debate. And no, nobody gets to say we're having a mass debate, because that sounds rude.
If you can't see those narratives, like I said, you're in deep, and I can't help you other than through the power of repetition and explaining it again like I do in this post. Don't take it the wrong way, I'm not trying to belittle you. You're just not seeing the real world behind the facade. These companies and people/ego's ride on that facade, to manipulate the real world. Add some strong polarised camps and you have the perfect recipe to keep everyone deluded & busy while nobody bats an eye to the actual agenda you're pushing.
Commerce & politics 101...
If you want to analyse what a piece of information was launched in the ether for in earnest, what you need to do is consider carefully 'Who benefits'. Its the same idea as 'following the money'. It leads you to the truth behind the facade. Zoom out as far as you can. What happens on Twitter serves to benefit Musk, and Musk only. Not you. Not me. Musk. Note I"m never even talking for a second about whatever political wing we're on. Its irrelevant. The endgame is the same: Power. Money. Influence. And its not your power, no matter how often CEO's tell you they're democratizing something.
If that penny now does drop for you... you might ask 'But then, is everything I see online and on TV in fact a small or a bigger lie?'
The answer is yes. There is always an agenda you're not seeing, or not quite understanding to the full extent. So how do you avoid the lies? Simple; you avoid believing the platforms, the talk shows, and bring everything back down to the core principles of what a 'thing' is. Social media is such a 'thing', a system of rules and conditions. And they don't favor you as end user. You're the product, the means to someone else's end. Your clicks. Your likes. Your content. All the 'thing' has to manage, is how they funnel maximum user counts to hot topics, to earn money.
Here's a piece of ingame brilliance to accompany this story. Yep, its that old.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Gear_Solid_2:_Sons_of_Liberty
There is also a paradox when it comes to having 'more information'. The more you get, the harder it becomes to distill the information you need. Social Media offer you, alongside the internet, an infinite source of information. As a result people know less, and have more trouble filtering things down to what théy need to know.