Please don’t make us stay on Twitter.
Meta have launched their brand new social media app, Threads, today as millions are flocking to the Mark Zuckerberg-backed platform in order to escape the current demise of Twitter.
Just last week, Elon Musk’s app crashed and users have since seen their number of viewable tweets regulated by view counts implemented by the South African businessman who now seems hellbent on putting everything behind a paywall, even the much-loved Tweetdeck.
With all that going on, it’s clear that Zuckerberg saw an opportunity to finally replace the bird app with a creation of his own. And so, Threads was born, and has since launched as of today in the UK and US.
Early reviews of Threads seem positive, with a big benefit of the app being the fact that your Instagram following carries over to your new profile.
However, there’s a major catch for Irish citizens – we can’t use Threads and we may never be able to.
Threads may never be available in Ireland
The major factor in why Meta are refraining from an EU launch is, of course, data issues. The main sticking point – the EU’s Digital Markets Act – sees large corporations like Meta as “gatekeepers” which means that there are certain restrictions on the data they can use.
The UK is not fully governed by GDPR or EU privacy rules, which are much more stringent than our overseas counterparts’ laws.
The same can be said for the States, with the platform telling US users that it will collect a wide variety of data including health, financial information, browsing histories, location, purchases, contacts, search history and sensitive information.
A spokesperson for Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) told the Irish Independent that the regulator had been in contact about the new service and that it would not be rolled out in the EU “at this point”.
While it may take months for this to work itself out, the fact is we may never see Threads in Ireland. So don’t get too excited just yet, it looks like we’re stuck with Elon’s Twitter for the time being.
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