'Twitter killer' Threads app to launch in days as Zuckerberg-Musk rivalry heats up

Meta says that Threads will allow users to 'share ideas and trends through text' as it targets the Twitter audience. Photo: Christoph Dernbach/DPA.

Instagram will launch its Twitter rival on Thursday as Mark Zuckerberg looks to capitalize on the weekend chaos at the social network run by Elon Musk.

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A listing of an app called Threads appeared on the Apple App Store on Tuesday, it says it should be available July 6th.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, has been working on the app for months and sought to sign up celebrity users who left Twitter to protest Musk's leadership.

Rivalry between Mr. Musk and Mr. Zuckerberg escalated to the point of a potential «cage match» between the two billionaires.

The App Store listing for Threads, which describes it as an «Instagram app», has the slogan «share ideas and trends with text.»

p>The rivalry between Elon Musk and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has escalated in recent weeks. Photo: AP Photo/Manu Fernandez.

While rival Twitter apps including Mastodon and BlueSky struggle to take off, Instagram is looking to capitalize on its existing large user base. base. Screenshots show that the app encourages people to follow accounts they already follow on Instagram.

The app allows you to see messages only for the people the user follows, or only for those mentioned, and for everyone.

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Mr. Musk's Twitter leadership was criticized over the weekend when he blocked displaying tweets for those who are not logged into the social network. He then limited the number of tweets users could see per day, which caused the app to not work properly for millions of users.

The second step was canceled the next day. However, the company caused even more concern on Monday when it said that only verified users who pay for the Twitter subscription service, Twitter Blue, will be able to use the popular tweet monitoring service TweetDeck.

Mastodon downloads, according to Sensor Tower and BlueSky surged over the weekend, up ten and seven times their daily average, respectively.

Great workout with three men. which I really admire.
Total IQ in this photo is 1000. «Not including me» 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/BY34IpRny8

— Georges St-Pierre (@GeorgesStPierre) July 3, 2023

To Mr. Musk, 52 years old , and Mr Zuckerberg, 39, who disagreed long before Mr Musk paid $44bn (£35bn) for Twitter last year, have been discussing organizing the competition in recent weeks.

Dana White, President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has reportedly been in touch about the event, which will have a charity component. Last week, Musk speculated that this could happen in Rome's Colosseum.

On Tuesday, Musk responded to a tweet showing widespread data collection using the Threads app by tweeting «!». Georges St-Pierre, the legendary mixed martial artist, posted on Twitter that he was training with Mr. Musk.