We tried Threads, the app that wants to replace Twitter
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Let’s start from an assumption: not being able to download Threads in Italy, the Meta photocopy app of Twitter, is not a technical issue but a bureaucratic one. The European guarantor, as explained yesterday by the Irish Data Protection Commission, has not yet received the right reassurances from Meta about the ways in which Threads uses and shares data from Instagram, the app on which it is based, and which could represent a concrete problem of data-crossing in a market, that of the EU, which from the GDPR onwards has learned to carefully scrutinize the methods of use of European information by non-continental companies, to ensure that they all comply with EU directives. Having said that, for those willing and with a bit of time available, Threads can be obtained without major problems on an iPhone, by creating an account with a billing country, without entering any means of payment, outside the European Union, such as the United States. That’s what we did to try out the new app.
The fideverse
On first access, the app asks you to set your profile as public or private, after having logged in with your Instagram profile anyway. Next, Meta reminds us how Threads works: “Threads is part of Instagram and we’ll use your information to personalize experiences.” Here is already the first point on which the Guarantor does not agree: in the spring the Irish DPC had prevented Meta from launching advertising services on WhatsApp that used data from Facebook and Instagram. Then an interesting point: “Future versions of Threads will support the ‘fediverse’, a new type of social media that allows people to follow each other and interact with each other on different platforms, such as Mastodon”. Goodbye Metaverse. While for Mastodon, another Twitter rival, the question is broader and compatibility is based on the fact that this, like Threads, exploits shared and decentralized protocols which, as Meta demonstrates not only in theory, are interoperable and can create services that ‘they talk’. You can create a biography and upload a new photo or copy the information from your Instagram profile.
Text only, sparsely populated (for us Italians)
Once in Threads everything is very similar to Twitter. Having downloaded it with an American account does not remove the limit that, following mainly Italian people on Instagram, the platform seems sparsely populated. Following other accounts is very simple, tapping the magnifying glass at the bottom, which is used both to receive suggestions on other profiles and to search for someone. In the middle, the button to create a post, i.e. a thread. This can be text only or with photos and/or videos. There is no joke limit, simply because the platform will then divide the post into various sections, as if it were a discussion (in English ‘thread’). Notifications are collected in the menu which is reached with the heart icon. Also here are followed accounts, those who are following us, and alerts on replies to our posts, mentions, and interactions with verified people. By the way, the blue check, which in Italy is possible with Meta Verified, will be migrated to Threads, to have the mustache that certifies our online presence, here too.
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