3 reasons to ignore Threads

Millions of people already use it and it is the hype of the moment: Threads. A very smart idea from Meta, although Elon Musk threatens to sue this Twitter copy for his imitation. We don’t think Meta should be terribly concerned about the outcome of that case, if it ever comes up, but that doesn’t mean everyone should blindly choose Threads right now. There are quite a few hooks and eyes on it.

1. Your entire Instagram account gone

The main reason to consider whether you want to start with Threads is to think about when you want to end it. Maybe you don’t think you want that yet: it just arrived, but if you decide that it’s not your social medium, you can also say goodbye to your Instagram account right away. These accounts are linked in such a way that it is not possible to cancel your account from Threads and keep it from Instagram. You have the necessary conversations, posts, memories on Instagram: do you really want to give up all that if Threads doesn’t seem to work? Good to know: you can delete posts from Threads, but never your entire account without also deleting your entire Instagram account. The only option is to temporarily deactivate your Threads account (which can be done in the Account menu).

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2. Your privacy

Are you upset that Threads is not yet available in Europe? That is not a coincidence or because Meta would have insufficient server capacity: it has everything to do with the laws and regulations in our part of the world. We expect, among other things, the ruling of the European Court of Justice of 4 July to play a role. It said Facebook has no “legitimate interest” in justifying using user data for advertising. However, that is the advertising concept of Meta and would save a lot of revenue. Another factor is that Europe does not want data from EU citizens to be sent to the US. Meta was previously fined 1.2 billion euros for it and it may just be that Meta does not (yet) release Threads in Europe. The data collected by the Threads app may include your sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, and biometric data. Apparently it is not the most ideal app for your privacy, which actually applies to all apps of the very powerful Meta.

Information about what data Threads and Mastodon may collect and share about you (Source: App Store)

3. It is quickly put together

It doesn’t have to be negative, but it can be: Meta doesn’t hide that Threads is an answer to all the hassle at Twitter in recent months. It therefore started development on Threads in January, which is of course quite doable if you have many developers at your disposal, but some hasty decisions may have been made in such a short time. There are also some complaints about the app here and there. It’s messy and revolves too much around algorithms and social media, rather than valuable information. It can certainly change, but that takes patience.

Do you have Threads, are you waiting or do you not want it at all? Leave it now in the comments.