After the initial rush of people to join the platform, Meta’s Threads app has received a lukewarm reception. The left-wing journalists and pundits who rushed to Threads in a panic to escape Twitter’s oppression and Elon Musk, the evil CEO of Twitter, have not done much with the app other than complain about it.
It’s like when your girlfriend is always complaining about her former boyfriend. It’s not a good sign for a healthy relationship.
Whether Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg knew it or not the name Threads of his text-based social platform is exactly what we have been waiting for. Will it be sewn into something beautiful, or will it just be another tangled mess to be cleaned up?
Elon Musk’s decision to take over Twitter and the issues that have been lingering for years about the lack of control against bots and bullies has disgusted many users. Is it the best way to engage with a platform that is owned by a company with flaws and hasn’t cleaned up its own issues?
The tangled mess has won so far. As the Girl Turns is a real brand, I claim my social media presence on every platform relevant to me. Zuck’s latest effort to control and monitor the world is not something I am interested in. Aside from occasionally checking my feed and posting, I don’t care about it at all. This article makes it clear that Zuckerberg cannot be trusted to protect your data or create an environment of freedom of speech.
The social media trends have changed since we first signed on to the site over a decade before. We’re no longer interested in chaos, gimmicks, or stunts, nor are we excited about learning HTML to change our background on MySpace. We want a simple, uncluttered social media platform, free of bots and bullies, that doesn’t try to sell us things we don’t need or want. Adam Mosseri is the head of Instagram and he knows that. He was quoted by The New York Times as saying, “I want Threads to be a friendly place for public discussion.”
Is it even possible to do that, when Threads already seems to be lacking in protections? My first-day using Threads brought me issues that Twitter, a platform of a similar nature, has been plagued with for years. My account was already being followed by bots and fake profiles.
As we have previously reported, the censorship that is already evident on Facebook has spread like a fungus to Threads.
Donald Trump Jr. was one of those who were immediately censored.
Trump Jr. took to Twitter to highlight the irony that a platform designed to encourage real conversation was shutting it down.
Threads not exactly off to a great start. Hey Instagram, threads is verbal, so the whole skimpy bikini thing is not going to work so well if your influencers can’t actually formulate a sentence… IMHO you may want to rethink cutting off those who can. pic.twitter.com/vBKIOjg8Z8
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 6, 2023
Meta has also been mum on whether Threads protects user privacy when sharing data with third-party apps. How many people read the terms and conditions when they download an app? It is not the first time that Zuckerberg has sold Facebook and Instagram data. As a result, Threads will not change much.
Experts warn of privacy concerns in Meta’s handling of the data that it collects when users subscribe to its new service. It could also be shared with other platforms that don’t have the same strict privacy protections or even servers in China.
In terms of service, there is a promise to make Threads a part of “fediverse”, a network of decentralized servers that allow social networks like Mastodon to communicate. A Threads user, for example, would be able to interact seamlessly with Mastodon users, even though they are on different platforms.
Meta warns that once the app has been added to the fediverse: “Please note that we are now directing you to send your data to services which Meta does not control. Information sent to Third Party Services will no longer be under Meta’s control, and is subjected to the Terms and Policies of these Third Party Services.”
Meta’s terms of service, which are carefully drafted to protect Meta and allow maximum flexibility, are vague about what data is shared. Once the data has been shared, users may not have recourse.
“Fediverse”, on the other hand, sounds absolutely terrifying. Zuckerberg’s attempt to invoke Star Trek is actually conjuring Person Of Interest.
But hope is eternal, particularly among those who love the idea of controlled speech and restricted opposition. Ron Perlman, a leftist actor and former has-been (but again I repeat myself), has announced he’s done with Twitter. He plans to join Threads because of its less toxic environment.
Breaking…I’m taking my business to THREADS. Haters stay the fuck out.
— Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) July 10, 2023
No one cares. No one is interested. What’s he been up to since Hellboy? Perlman is coming back just as this ABC journalist in Australia made a big deal about leaving Twitter on Friday.
So I’m done here I’m on threads
Same name bye #auspol— Patricia Karvelas (@PatsKarvelas) July 6, 2023
Then crawling back to the same place not even a full week later.
Patricia Karvelas, an ABC journalist who quit Twitter a little over a week ago to use Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads app in favor of Elon Musk’s platform, has now returned.
Karvelas announced on Friday that she would be leaving Twitter. She tweeted that she had “done” the platform and informed her left-wing followers that they could find her on Threads.
After just a few short days, however, the ABC Radio National presenter had returned to Twitter, advising she would be posting there daily again. She was still trying to save face, stating “If you want real engagement, I’m over at the other place”.
Proper engagement. She would not have returned to Twitter if she had received any engagement on Threads. They will stop tweeting when they quit virtue-signaling on the 12th day of Never.
People have reached out and asked me to post daily videos here still. So I will – but if you want proper engagement I’m at the other place @RNBreakfast #auspol pic.twitter.com/Rja9UCNBPQ
— Patricia Karvelas (@PatsKarvelas) July 10, 2023
Musk is still struggling to find sponsors, despite Threads’ mediocre offerings. Zuckerberg, on the other hand, has a strong base of advertisers. There is also the question as to whether Threads has taken Twitter’s proprietary functionality. It was inevitable that there would be an issue at some stage with a platform, given the exodus and firing of Twitter programmers and staff since Musk took over. Threads’ dominance or its gradual disappearances, like Bluesky Social and Mastodon, will determine whether this issue, as well as the subsequent lawsuits, grows.
Meanwhile, the entire brouhaha surrounding Musk and Zuckerberg has spawned all kinds of Mean Girl-like comparisons. Jim Thompson, our very own spokesperson, said it best.
