The social Threads challenges Twitter but stays away from European regulations

Brussels directives on the use of data keep the new services of the American giants at bay. After Google’s Bard, Meta’s new product is also giving up on the EU market (for now)

The new digital rules introduced byEuropean Union deprive European users of access to new services and revolutionary technologies? The question is becoming increasingly topical after a second American giant decided to postpone the introduction of its services in Europe due to too strict or confusing regulations. Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, yesterday launched the new social network Threads, which is expected to compete with Twittertaking advantage of the dissatisfaction of some users with the chaotic management of Elon Musk. The structure of the social network is the same: sharing of short texts, links, photos and videos. In just a few hours, over 30 million users were registered. But Threads was only offered in app stores by US and UK. It is not available in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland and in the app stores of other EU member states. A spokesperson for the Irish Data Protection Authority told the Irish Independent that “for the time being” the Mark Zuckerberg does not intend to throw Threads in the EU. Other sources explained that Meta is hesitant due to the restrictions imposed on “gatekeepers” by the Digital Markets Act (DMA), one of the pillars of the new EU digital regulation.