It was to be expected: As the buzz around Meta’s new microblogging platform Threads gained momentum, some individuals have stepped in to take advantage of the fact that the app still can’t formally serve users in the European Union (or China, or Russia).
Threads – whose full name is “Threads, an Instagram app” – is an app created by Meta’s Instagram team and to use it you have to have an Instagram account.
That, and the fact that Threads collects a myriad of potentially sensitive information and that Meta is likely aiming to combine that information with that collected via Instagram and Facebook for targeted advertising, have stopped the company from launching it in the EU, which has very specific and limiting data privacy and antitrust laws. (The app reportedly even stops working for some users who travel to the EU.)