Zuckerberg's Twitter Threads competitor won't launch in EU this week

Mark Zuckerberg's meta has confirmed that it does not initially plan to launch its new social media app in the EU. Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP

Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter rival won't launch this week in the EU as the billionaire fights strict rules in the single bloc.

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), the main regulator in the EU that administers Meta, said the company has confirmed it has no plans to launch its Threads app as part of the union at first.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, earlier this year, switched users from the UK to agreements with the US, and its operations in the UK are largely regulated by the Office of the Post-Brexit Information Commissioner.

An ICO spokesperson has confirmed that the app will go live. in the UK, stating that it monitors how the app handles privacy.

A spokesperson said: “We have received confirmation from Meta that Threads will launch in the UK on July 6th and we continue to engage with the company. about its approach to data protection compliance.»

Threads, due to launch Thursday, is Instagram's response to Elon Musk's Twitter, seeking to take advantage of the billionaire's often erratic management of the social media app.

Topics include features similar to Twitter, such as «like», «reply» and «share». Credit: Meta «Meta has confirmed to DPC that they currently have no plans to roll out the service in the EU,» a spokesman for the Irish regulator said.

It is understood that the supervisor did not directly block Meta from launching the service, but the company itself has not demonstrated that it complies with EU data protection rules and is waiting for more details on upcoming EU competition rules.

The DPC typically requires prior notice to launch Meta apps and features in the EU, and delays the launch of services such as Facebook Dating and the Messenger Kids app.

It comes weeks after the DPC fined Meta €1.2bn (£1bn), Europe's largest privacy fine, and ordered it to stop transferring Europeans' data to the US for months, saying it broke rules. protection of user data.

This decision sparked a furious backlash from Meta, who said it risks tearing the Internet apart.

On Tuesday, an EU court ruled against Meta in a case that could require the company to obtain user consent before targeting ads to them.

The Apple App Store listing for the Threads app says it may collect a large amount of data, including health and fitness information, browsing history, and location.

Meta said it plans to launch the app in more than 100 countries.

While the app isn't due to be released until Thursday, posts from some early access users started showing up in the version of Threads available in web browsers on Wednesday.

Mark Zuckerberg wrote: «Let's let's do it. Welcome to Threads» with a fire emoji. A message appeared on the Netflix account: «Waiting for my friends to join me.»

Others who apparently had early access to the application were Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, American businessman Gary Vaynerchuk and a string of social media influencers. Meta later made posts unavailable before Thursday's launch.

This showed that users can like and share posts in the same way they can on Twitter, as well as comment on them.