If you want an idea of how unpopular Elon Musk and his takeover of Twitter is, you need only look at how popular Mark Zuckerberg and his new Twitter clone, Threads, has become. In less than a day more than 30 million people signed up, and that number is now approaching 100 million. And this excludes the EU. Elon Musk has accomplished the impossible – he’s made Zuckerberg almost likable. While Musk created the EV automobile market and launches rockets to space, rehabilitating Zuckerberg’s image may stand as his most impressive achievement.
In comparison to Twitter, which has become a cesspool of far right conspiracies, antisemitism, anti-LGBT posts, shady ads, and more, Threads has garnered positive reviews for a number of reasons. There appears to be a level of curation to eliminate the really awful posts, although it’s still too early to tell. It’s simple to sign up, it promises to be much like Twitter before Musk bought the company, and it’s free to access all of its features. If you have an Instagram account, you can retain your same friends and profile and sign up in about 5 seconds.
But its best feature is that it’s devoid of Elon Musk and his crazy conspiracy theories and the syncophants that follow and idolize him. Threads is already more like the original Twitter than what Twitter has now become. Threads works especially well considering how new it is. It has none of the performance issues that Twitter has had, including limiting how many posts a user can read – one of Musk’s bizzare new rules.
From a distance, it’s entertaining to watch two billionaires take shots at each other. Clearly the crowd’s favorite is Zuckerberg, not because he’s well-liked – but because so many want to see Musk pay a price for what’s he done to Twitter and how dispicable a character he is. His behavior has been abhorent, refusing to pay his bills, firing 80% of his employees, disparaging former execs, and ginning up all sorts of excuses for Twitter’s performance failures.
Yes, Musk has been the best thing that could have happened to Zuckerberg, and Threads is the biggest threat to Twitter. Twitter’s attorney threatened Zuckerberg with a lawsuit, claiming Threads is using confidential information and is being developed by former Twitter employees. (Meta denies it.) It’s just Musk’s fear of having a real competitor that threatens Twitter’s survival. Zuckerberg’s timing for the introduction of Thread is perfect, the week after Twitter had to throttle back its usage due to internal issues. And true to form Musk has reacted with some bizzare tweets calling Zuckerberg a “cuck” and challenging him to a “literal dick measuring contest.”
As Oliver Darcy of CNN points out, “Had Musk not estranged a large chunk of Twitter’s user base, it would be hard to imagine that Threads would be enjoying the success it currently is. In fact, you could see a world in which loyal Twitter users would have fiercely rejected Zuckerberg shamelessly copy and pasting the Twitter model. Instead, Threads is largely being welcomed with open arms because Musk has ruled over Twitter in such an unabashedly manic way.”
But let’s not get sidetracked by this fight between billionaires. Threads, like Twitter, still collects a ton of data on us for advertising purposes. Wired compared the two – and they are comparable and extensive. I’ve rarely seen a comple list and it’s an eye-opener:
…………….Data Linked to You by Threads………………………
Third-Party Advertising:
- Purchases (Purchase History)
- Financial Info (Other Financial Info)
- Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
- Contact Info (Physical Address, Email Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User Contact Info)
- Contacts
- User Content (Photos or Videos, Gameplay Content, Other User Content)
- Search History
- Browsing History
- Identifiers (User ID, Device ID)
- Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data, Other Usage Data)
- Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data)
- Other Data
Developer’s Advertising or Marketing:
- Purchases (Purchase History)
- Financial Info (Other Financial Info)
- Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
- Contact Info (Physical Address, Email Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User Contact Info)
- Contacts
- User Content ( Photos or Videos, Gameplay Content, Other User Content)
- Search History
- Browsing History
- Identifiers (User ID, Device ID)
- Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data, Other Usage Data)
- Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data)
- Other Data
Analytics:
- Health & Fitness (Health, Fitness)
- Purchases (Purchase History, Financial Info, Payment Info, Other Financial Info)
- Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
- Contact Info (Physical Address, Email Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User Contact Info)
- Contacts
- User Content (Photos or Videos, Audio Data, Gameplay Content, Customer Support, Other User Content)
- Search History
- Browsing History
- Identifiers (User ID, Device ID)
- Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data, Other Usage Data)
- Sensitive Info
- Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data)
- Other Data
Product Personalization:
- Purchases (Purchase History)
- Financial Info (Other Financial Info)
- Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
- Contact Info (Physical Address, Email Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User Contact Info)
- Contacts
- User Content (Photos or Videos, Gameplay Content, Other User Content)
- Search History
- Browsing History
- Identifiers (User ID, Device ID)
- Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data, Other Usage Data)
- Sensitive Info
- Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data)
- Other Data
App Functionality:
- Health & Fitness (Health, Fitness)
- Purchases (Purchase History)
- Financial Info (Payment Info, Credit Info, Other Financial Info)
- Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
- Contact Info (Physical Address, Email Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User Contact Info)
- Contacts
- User Content (Emails or Text Messages, Photos or Videos, Audio Data, Gameplay Content, Customer Support, Other User Content)
- Search History
- Browsing History
- Identifiers (User ID, Device ID)
- Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data, Other Usage Data)
- Sensitive Info
- Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data)
- Other Data
Other Purposes:
- Purchases (Purchase History)
- Financial Info (Other Financial Info)
- Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
- Contact Info (Physical Address, Email Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User Contact Info)
- Contacts
- User Content (Photos or Videos, Gameplay Content, Customer Support, Other User Content)
- Search History
- Browsing History
- Identifiers (User ID, Device ID)
- Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data, Other Usage Data)
- Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data)
- Other Data
………………TWITTER…………………
Data Used to Track You
- Purchases (Purchase History)
- Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
- Contact Info (Email Address)
- User Content
- Browsing History
- Identifiers (User ID, Device ID)
- Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data)
Data Linked to You
Third-Party Advertising:
- Purchases (Purchase History)
- Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
- Contact Info (Email Address)
- Browsing History
- Identifiers (User ID, Device ID)
- Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data)
- Diagnostics (Performance Data)
Developer’s Advertising or Marketing:
- Purchases (Purchase History)
- Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
- Contact Info (Email Address)
- User Content
- Browsing History
- Identifiers (User ID, Device ID)
- Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data)
Analytics:
- Purchases (Purchase History)
- Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
- Contacts
- User Content (Photos or Videos, Audio Data, Other User Content)
- Search History
- Browsing History
- Identifiers (User ID, Device ID)
- Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data)
- Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data)
Product Personalization:
- Purchases (Purchase History)
- Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
- Contact Info (Email Address, Phone Number)
- Contacts
- User Content
- Search History
- Browsing History
- Identifiers (User ID, Device ID)
- Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data)
- Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data)
Other Purposes:
- Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
- Contact Info (Email Address, Name, Phone Number)
- Contacts
- User Content (Photos or Videos)
- Search History
- Identifiers (User ID)
Data Not Linked to You
Third-Party Advertising:
- Other Data
Developer’s Advertising or Marketing:
- Other Data
Analytics:
- User Content (Emails or Text Messages)
- Other Data
App Functionality:
- Contact Info (Physical Address)
- User Content (Emails or Text Messages)
- Other Data
Are you on Threads? I read to leave Threads you also have to cancel your Instagram account, and that algorithms rule timelines, not actual timelines. Agree?
Yes I am and am no longer on Twitter. Right now you would need to cancel both together, but Meta has said that will change once they add more features. I think they chose to release Threads without all of its features to get a headstart and to do it while so many were looking for an alternative.