<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Facebook and WhatsApp parent Meta will launch the firm’s long awaited competitor to Twitter, Instagram Threads, on Thursday, escalating the personal rivalry between feuding billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk and firmly throwing down the gauntlet after another chaotic weekend had the platform’s users searching for alternatives.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Meta’s app, Threads, is listed as “coming soon” on Apple’s App Store and is available for pre-order.



The listing said Threads is “expected July 6” and Meta’s countdown&nbsp;<a href="https://www.threads.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">website</a>&nbsp;for the launch indicates the app will go live at 10 a.m. ET (7 a.m. PT), though it’s unclear whether Meta plans to stagger the rollout in some way.



Details on the full nature of Threads are scarce but the listing describes the platform as a “text-based conversation app” and screenshots show a dashboard that appears very similar to Twitter’s app, with the ability to like, share, post and repost content.



Threads will be directly linked to Meta’s popular photo sharing platform Instagram and screenshots suggest users can keep their usernames and easily follow the same accounts they do on Instagram on the new platform.



From the listing, Threads looks likely to be a free service in exchange for personal data, a model in line with many of Meta’s other popular apps and other free online services.



Instagram Threads users will need to be at least 12 years old, according to the App Store listing.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-we-don-t-know">WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



It’s not clear when Threads will be launched on Android systems or whether the network will be accessible without the app. A similar listing of Threads&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/1/23781271/instagram-threads-twitter-leak-android-google-play" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly appeared</a>&nbsp;on the Google Play store—which serves Android devices—on Saturday showing similar features, images and descriptions. The post, which did not list a release date, was seemingly in error and was swiftly removed from the store.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news-peg">NEWS PEG</h2>



Meta’s release of a product to rival Twitter is both timely and expected. Meta, formerly Facebook, has a well documented history of lifting features from competitors—its short-form video feature Reels draws from TikTok,&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/13/meta-announces-discord-like-community-chats-on-messenger/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">community chats</a>&nbsp;from Discord and disappearing video and photo feature Stories from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-developer-mark-zuckerberg-invented-instagram-stories-copied-snapchat-2020-4?r=US&amp;IR=T" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Snapchat</a>—to varying degrees of success. Twitter is an obvious target, with many users keen to jump ship given the parade of controversy and service issues that has followed Elon Musk’s takeover last year, including drastic revisions to longstanding verification and content moderation policies, cutting company headcount to the bone, changes to who can access platform data and numerous system outages. Most recently, Musk limited the number of posts users—even paying users—could see on Twitter and required users to have registered for accounts to view tweets. With each new development, rivals like Bluesky, Trump’s Truth Social and Mastodon have&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/03/twitter-competitors-soar-after-yet-another-bad-musk-move/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">benefited handsomely</a>, though none have yet managed to gain the kind of traction needed to fully take on an established social media giant like Twitter. With its vast resources and established social networks, Threads’ arrival could pose a serious threat to Twitter.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuation">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



$101.5 billion. That’s how much&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/?list=rtb/&amp;sh=470e77f63e06">estimates</a>&nbsp;Mark Zuckerberg is worth, according to our live tracker. Zuckerberg’s fortune is largely derived from his stake in Meta and it makes him the 10th richest person in the world. Musk is worth an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=595dbf9d7999">estimated</a>&nbsp;$249.4 billion and currently holds the top position in&nbsp;Forbes’&nbsp;list of the world’s wealthiest people. The two billionaires have reportedly been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-cage-fight-b71fa4ff" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">feuding</a>&nbsp;for years, though this recently spilled out into the public domain and the pair are apparently primed to settle things with a literal fight. It is unclear whether the agreed upon “cage match” will ever happen.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-cage-fight-b71fa4ff" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Behind the Musk-Zuckerberg ‘Cage Match’ Is a Yearslong Billionaire Feud</a> (WSJ)

In this photo illustration, a user sees in his download

Meta’s Twitter Rival Threads Will Launch Thursday As Chaos Continues On Elon Musk’s Platform

Facebook’s parent company says it will no longer let advertisers buy targeted ads for users based on sensitive information such as race, political affiliation, sexual orientation, religion or health. &nbsp;



In one of its first major moves since&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2021/11/03/with-facebook-becoming-meta-chief-marketing-officer-alex-schultz-says-were-not-running-from-anything/?sh=2214098856be">rebranding as Meta</a>, the company plans to remove options to target people based on how people reference causes, organizations or public figures. The changes—which will go into effect on January 19—will be rolled out across all of Meta’s platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp as well as its network of other websites and apps using Facebook’s ad-targeting tools. For example, advertisers will no longer see health-related categories for keywords such as “World Diabetes Day” and “Chemotherapy” or religion-based keywords including “Catholic Church” and “Jewish Holidays.”



In a blog post published today about the decision, Graham Mudd, Meta’s vice president of product marketing and ads, wrote that the company wants to “better match people’s evolving expectations of how advertisers may reach them on our platform.” He said the changes are based on feedback from policymakers, civil rights experts and others as a way to prevent advertisers from abusing the platform.&nbsp;



“It is important to note that the interest targeting options we are removing are not based on people’s physical characteristics or personal attributes, but instead on things like people’s interactions with content on our platform,” Mudd wrote. “However, we’ve heard concerns from experts that targeting options like these could be used in ways that lead to negative experiences for people in underrepresented groups.”



In a series of tweets about the decision, Roy Austin Jr., Facebook’s vice president of civil rights, said the decisions to remove ad-targeting options <a href="https://twitter.com/RAustin_Jr/status/1458165826670956546?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“wasn’t an easy decision.”</a> He added that some advertisers expressed concern about their ability to “help generate positive societal change.” The company is also adding new tools to let users choose to see fewer ads about types of content they might not be interested in. While the company already gives people control over opting out of ads related to alcohol, parenting and politics, users will be able to also see fewer ads about gambling and weight loss beginning next year.



Samidh Chakrabarti, who led Facebook’s civic integrity team before leaving in September, wrote on Twitter that Meta’s updates are “an important step.” However, he said the company should also agree to a third-party audit to detect potential bias in the ad delivery system.



“Modern ad networks now deliver ads so precisely that they may create more bias than ad targeting itself,” Chakrabarti wrote.



Meta’s moves comes as European lawmakers are pushing to regulate how Facebook and other tech giants collect and use data for advertising. During the annual Web Summit tech conference last week, Věra Jourová, European Commission vice president for values and transparency,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2021/11/02/european-union-lawmaker-says-whistleblowers-highlight-the-need-for-regulating-online-political-advertising/?sh=3ba7bcad31e3">said sensitive personal information shouldn’t be allowed for use in political advertising</a>. She said users should know why they’re seeing an ad, who paid for it and which data was used to target them, adding that there should also be a way to opt out.



“As we always say in Europe, we want technologies to serve the people and not vice-versa,” she said during a press conference in Lisbon. “Big Tech has really big power, but they did not assume the responsibility.”



Meta’s decisions to remove sensitive ad-targeting tools follows another big decision by the company to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/2021/11/02/facebook-shutting-down-facial-recognition-software/?sh=249a30a66e90">shut down its facial recognition software</a>, which has long been seen by many consumer advocates as an invasion of user privacy. The change, announced last week, will begin rolling out over the next few weeks while Facebook deletes face scans of more than a billion users. The update also will end the social network’s ability to automatically suggest tagging people in photos and also affect a tool that helps blind and visually-impaired users identify images via text descriptions.



Earlier today, Meta also released its&nbsp;<a href="https://transparency.fb.com/data/community-standards-enforcement/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">quarterly report</a>&nbsp;detailing how it enforced its policies from July through September of 2021 including detailed information about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.engadget.com/metas-latest-transparency-report-details-bullying-and-harassment-on-facebook-and-instagram-182854231.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bullying and harassment on Facebook and Instagram</a>. The company also said it will let EY conduct an external audit of its metrics in the fourth quarter.



Although Meta is making a number of changes to its own policies, U.S. lawmakers continue looking at ways to regulate the company and other tech giants. Earlier today, a bi-partisan group of lawmakers announced new legislation that would let users opt out of having companies’ algorithms serve up data-driven content.&nbsp;



“This commonsense legislation will increase data transparency, expand consumer privacy, and shed light on mechanisms used to power Big Tech platforms,” U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, wrote in a tweet.



Last month, Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill that would remove liability protections when a platform “knowingly or recklessly promotes harmful content.” A third bill, introduced by U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, would change the way large companies are able to collect, use or share user data while giving additional enforcement powers to the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general.



By Marty Swant, Forbes Staff

Tag: Meta

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