All the features (and problems) of Threads

Like Twitter, but more “beautiful” (and full of criticism). The company of Mark ZuckerbergMeta, today released Threads, the clone app of the social network on the market Elon Musk. Objective: to intercept all those users disappointed by the changes that the South African tycoon has imposed on Twitter and take advantage of the big phase of technical and identity crisis that the social network with the bird has been facing for about a year. But not only. The app is currently available in the American, British and other markets, but not in the European Union for reasons related to the privacy of its users. Those enrolled on the first day, according to Zuckerberg’s provisional estimates, would be over 30 million. We downloaded it through an account Apple USA and it looks ready to work in Europe.

After opening, Threads is already integrated into the Italian social ecosystem: the translation is complete, it does not require any localization verification (at launch, Truththe social network of Trumpneeded a US IP or a cell phone with a US area code) and most importantly, the app is hand-in-hand with Instagram, from which it inherits strong layout elements. From its social brother, Threads also gives the possibility to import both profile information and the following list. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t downloaded it (yet): once they sign up, they’ll get a notification letting them know that we ask them to follow them. The profile can be both public and private, and the structure is very very similar to Twitter: the buttons available are like, comment, “repost” (does this remind you of something?) and send via Direct. The latter function is an example of the concept of cross-posting and of “fediverse” that Threads advertises when subscribing: through this button it is possible to insert the post in the stories and in the Instagram feed and even tweet it. The contents will also be incomparable in other similar social networks, such as BlueSky And Mastodon, while the character limit is set to 500. You can upload videos (up to five minutes), embed links, and upload high-resolution photos; Furthermore, there is no scrolling limitunlike what happened in the recent past on Twitter, and hashtags have no relevance in the placement of individual posts.

However, there are critical issues. The feedsat least in this launch phase, looks like highly algorithmic. In fact, almost none of the posts on the homepage come from the accounts followed through the profile we used. You can’t even choose between suggested and followed profiles (there is on Instagram and Twitter). It’s unclear if this will be implemented in the future, the suspect is that the goal is emulate the compulsive scrolling typical of TikTok and Instagram Reels. However, one of the strengths of pre-Musk Twitter was precisely the possibility of building a well-calibrated feed, based on precise interests, which could be sectorised through lists, free of any interference decided by the social network independently.

THE app problems they are also multiple from the point of view of the processing of user data. An example is theinability to unsubscribe. Right now, you’re only allowed to pause your account and delete all posts, but you can only delete yourself if you choose to deprive yourself of the connected Instagram account at the same time. After all, the full name is “Threads, an Instagram app”, so the integration is announced explicitly, but the opaque sharing of sensitive information risks significantly delaying the launch of the social network inEU, where the protection of personal data has been a cornerstone for years. I’m there to block the road Data Protection Commissionwhich in the past had already blocked some sponsorships that crossed Facebook data with WhatsApp data, and the Digital Markets Act, which regulates the sharing of data between platforms. As reported by the Guardian, Half it would be waiting for an opinion from the European Commission on the effectiveness of the above cases, and it is not certain that the times will be short.

Despite the many clouds, Mark Zuckerberg’s strategy is clear as day: the “SnapChat method”. The app with the ghost, in fact, has sunk since Instagram copied the function of short 15-second videos with a very short life cycle, implementing the Stories to posts. Who knows, maybe the same tactic will also force Twitter to capitulate.