This might help explain the spectacular launch of Threads
Automatically creating a shadow account for everyone on Instagram?
Even allowing people to follow that account?
Sounds like they really wanted to push Threads out the door in a big way.
Automatically creating a shadow account for everyone on Instagram?
Even allowing people to follow that account?
Sounds like they really wanted to push Threads out the door in a big way.
Fuck Meta and all but this isn't news. Meta litterally said straight up that they would be doing this before threads ever launched. If you have an instagram account then that is also your threads account. This isn't some conspiracy it's exactly what they told everyone they were doing. It's no diferent than linked accounts for google services.
Yeah this Threads issue is getting into the tin foil delusional territory now. Just as you said. They literally say "well use your Instagram acccount" of you bother to read their disclaimers they literally tell you that they are literally using your Instagram account. It's "Threads by Instagram". When you first log in it ll import all your Instagram contacts and you cna "follow" them. And if they don't have it yet it'll say "you'll follow as soon as they join threads" there is no "Shadow Threads account, because they are using the Instagram account.".
You can definitely be against threads and Meta. I Personally am not super thrilled about it. But there is way more than enough to hate a out meta and threads without making stuff up.
I think the difference is that the Threads user count keeps getting thrown around as an indicator of its success and viability, but it's not a great KPI.
I do think people are using this "realization" of accounts being automatically created as a conspiratorial gotcha, but it's still important to remind people of this scenario as they evaluate their prospects.
If that were the case though, wouldn't the number of Threads users be the exact same as the current number of Instagram users?
No because they're only doing this for Instagram users who are located in the United States. It hasn't launched anywhere else yet.
Probably because it will be quite illegal in Europe so they probably are not going to do it for European users but it hasn't launched there yet anyway so we don't know.
It's available in the UK as well. They don't follow EU privacy laws.
Why would this be illegal in Europe ?
It would be more wouldn't it?
Total = Number of Instagram accounts + Threads only accounts
Don't think you can make a Threads only account (at least at the moment anyway)!
Exactly, and that's the reason why deleting a Threads account also deletes the Instagram account. Because there is only one account for both services.
Thank you for saying it.
It's a conspiracy just in the sense that they are seemingly counting these towards their growth numbers. If they're saying they have 20 million accounts, but they created 3/4 of them as placeholders, then no...they have 5 million accounts.
I really think they are not, those are all account from people who have actively signed up. Threads really is that much bigger than Mastodon, and it's not that surprising.
Presumably they would have created ~2 Billion Threads accounts since there are ~2B Instagram users. Even if it was just the US there are approximately ~115M Instagram account.
So no, the 70M user number would just be the number to actually try Threads.
Google Play store alone has 10 mil+ downloads, so it's easy to assume Apple has roughly the same...so that's 20 million users right there...
Downloads aren't equal to individual users, but you knew that because you're disingenuous, not stupid, right?
They’re not creating a shadow account, you’re literally logging in with your instagram account.
What this post is implying, is that the user numbers are just existing instagram accounts, which doesn’t make sense because in that case they’d have 2 billion users within the first second.
You can follow/request to follow before the user has actually "created" the account, so they’re lying about which users have done that already, not about how many users they actually have.
Come at me downvotes
Yeah, I signed up for it, they have an option for you to pre-follow people for when they sign up to threads
Does that person who has been pre-followed then get a notification to join and respond/follow back?
Because that would be a great way to boost the new service exponentially.
Yes they do
This is the moment the account is made. Even if the other person doesn’t respond or has even created an account. That’s how they are driving up their numbers.
So long as you have an account you could potentially have a Threads account without your knowledge.
Meta is 100% artificially working the accounts.
You can't really follow someone until they've made an account. Threads has an option where you can go into settings and find a list of your Instagram following list. From there, you can make it so you follow certain people as soon as they join Threads.
I hate meta just like the next person, but I‘m not sure how that’s supposed to boost accounts, since you’re literally just seeing these once you already have the account.
They are of course using their advantage in providing you your existing following list /followers. And they’re definitely happy to push it, but this post is implying something that strikes me as plain wrong.
I think you're right. It looks like Instagram too. I feel like it's Instagram with a focus on words.
Now we know why it was not launched in EU.
Why does everything have to be a conspiracy with some people? Threads literally and directly explains that it uses your Instagram account. They're the same account. Nothing crazy. No magic. No oogie boogie. Just the same account.
You need to activate the threads account. People are being asked to follow accounts which haven't been activated IE created.
You're missing the point.
So think of it like a 'feature' of Instagram then. You can enable the feature or you can leave it disabled but either way its sharing user data and login information etc.
I don't think I'm missing any point. Have you used it? They're owned by the same company. Threads is separate but part of Instagram. Other than the user name being reserved on Threads in case the Instagram user wants to sign up, there isn't an account created. If you try to search the name of any of those accounts in Threads it doesn't come up at all. (Edit: mistyped a word)
Argh
It definitely is oogie boogie, which is what makes it illegal in europe as it's against gdpr, which is why it's not available in europe.
They're doing some dodgy stuff with your data, that's for sure. But the sign-up is smooth. Instagram has a LOT of users, and Meta is leveraging that and making it super easy to share to IG that you have made said threads account (and if you don't, they will do it for you). The FOMO is real.
They have taken the biggest challenge to use a new social media platform, rebuilding your spidery web of follows, mutuals, weird interests, and friends, and made it basically transparent. It's a UX marvel. The sign-up numbers reflect that IMO.
Sharing data of users from one company to another company without their consent is literally what GDPR exists to stop. Instagram is one company. Threads is another company.
If it isn't oogie boogie then it literally wouldn't have massive legislation against it preventing it worldwide for eu citizens.
Is threads a separate company though? It's pretty explicit in saying "Threads an Instagram App"
In European law it doesn't matter. You try and bypass laws and the courts have none of it. It's very "fuck around find out". They already decided against them for antitrust for doing exactly that.
If you bypass shit in the EU they slap you with something else and make an example of you.
None of the data other than the user name is shown in Threads until the user from Instagram activates their account. I've tried to look up a number of the people from Instagram on Threads and if they haven't signed up, then the search results are zero.
Being able to use the same credentials for logging in is something else than creating a public profile for users that never signed up for the service.
but they don’t create a public profile for users that don’t sign up? it uses the same handle as your Instagram. If you never activate Threads then nothing happens with your IG username on Threads
I did not try Threads so I do not know. The post suggests that your user handle appears as a suggestion of a profile to follow for other people even if you never signed up.
It's basically just a new feature for Instagram, but in a new app because it's too different from the standard Instagram feed.
Also if you click one of the users who haven't signed up yet it just pre-queues your follow and says "You'll automatically follow then when/if they join threads"(I don't remember the exact wording here). This is blown out of proportion.
Your correct in a technical sense (eccept for mabe the fetaverse linkages) but not a semantic one,
Yes its absolutely technically true that people delete their unified account from the "other place to do so called threads account management page"
but semantically its a "new service" that they were "signed up for" with its own app, and if/when they delete their "threads account" everything else goes with it for some odd reason
Facebook and their dumb opaqeness
It's not creating a "shadow account", it is literally the same account. Threads is just a different frontend for what already existed with Instagram. And Meta would've been stupid, if they wouldn't have use what they already have.
Oh for sure, but it does make me wonder how accurate the sign up reports are.
Does Threads report people who actually sign up and "claim" their "shadow accounts," or does it count actual accounts and "shadow accounts?" The former is definitely a more accurate count, while the latter is basically numbers padding.
My understanding, it is reporting people who specifically elect to sign up for Threads using their Instagram account. On instagram profiles, they have been showing a badge with their Threads subscriber number that you only get when you elect to join Threads. This increases sequentially.
The highest number on the badge should give a good indication of how many Instagram users at least “claimed” their Threads account.
I fucking KNEW it.
35 million users my asshole - they’re just counting existing Instagram accounts.
Pretty sure they’re not. I mean those are instagram accounts, but only those who enabled threads. It’s also at 93 million now.
Why is it so hard to believe that people download the app and try it out? It’s easy to do, users don’t have to create a new account, the app is number one on the App Store, they’re probably advertising it in instagram, and it’s still just 20% of the instagram userbase.
Decentralization is nice, but most people don’t care about it and it’s too complicated or annoying to sign up there. Threads is dead simple and people want a Twitter replacement. It’s also "just" a fifth of the Twitter userbase.
Most of the people just care for "the hot new thing" some just dislike twitter more, some are forced by friends to use it (me :( )
Is kinda weird seeing so many people on Lemmy just do not trust any data from social media.
The things of the fediverse is that everything is too complicated, seeing my friends signups for Threads they just downloaded 1 app, and max 7 clicks and they made an account, they thought Mastodon was too hard to use :(
Friends don't make friends sign up for social media.
It's weird to not distrust Meta, if you can't see that idk what to tell you. In 70 years when a company is using detailed data collected about you since you were 13 to market nostalgia it'll be too late. Even if laws get implemented in the interum between now and then banning data harvesting, whatever data is collected today will still be on the market and you'll be an even juicier target.
It isn't very easy to get hold of for the "uninitiated". Which is partially a good thing, in my opinion. Meaningful interactions require effort.
Barriers to entry improve the quality of participants.
Setting things up on fediverse is overly complicated and could be made easier.
The biggest problem is it really isn't all that clear what the pros and cons are various instances are, and the truth is that for the most part with the exception of a few particular instances it really doesn't matter.
What might make the most sense is to have a website people can sign up on and then it just registers their account on one of a few instances to spread the load. Obviously that list I would have to be curated so it didn't include obvious problematic instances,but it wouldn't be that hard to do that. And that would make it as easy as threads is which basically is just an instance when all said and done.
And even if you do understand the pros and cons, it can be complicated because all these instances have differences and you have to figure out which one has the things you want and potentially make compromises.
Eg, I knew I absolutely must have downvotes and several instances disable those. I wanted to be federated with both lemmy.world and beehaw (and also lower my risk that beehaw is gonna defederate my instance in the future). I wanted as large of an instance as possible because by "fun" design, the "all" feed gets better the bigger the instance (IMO a design flaw), as does the ease of subscribing to communities (being first to subscribe is harder).
Something that would make it massively easier is portable/decentralised identities, or at least easy account migration. This should go for communities as well so that a community can exist independently of an instance, or be migrated to another instance with subscribers being redirected seamlessly.
Why?
Because Instagram did the same BS with their “Notes” feature recently and now nobody uses it.
You were automatically enrolled and it showed up on your feed and three months later, it’s crickets.
As much as I hate Twitter, I don’t think Threads is going to make a dent in the long run.
I don’t see how that’s related to them lying about user numbers, which I really don’t think they are doing.
We’ll see where threads will be in a few months, I’m sure not everyone will stay active there.
I’m not sure how you can see it any other way.
They had a successful platform (Instagram) and piggybacked a new platform on top and are counting the users toward their numbers.
If Zuckerbag released Threads without being tied to Instagram, it’d be a queef in the wind of a userbase.
It’s a clever strategy. For sure. I won’t pretend it’s not.
But seeing how “Notes” went - I don’t think it’s gonna go very far.
It’s like if McDonald’s started selling hotdogs from their stores under a separate store within their restaurants.
“McDog’s has over 1 billion served!”
No, McDonald’s does - you just put another product under the same roof by a different name.
ITT: no one who actually went through the sign-up process. It's like a 3 step process. Eventually you get brought to a screen that asks if you want to follow all of your current followers on Instagram. You can choose yes or no to all the people you currently follow, or you can individually select who you want to follow in Threads the people you follow on Instagram. If you select anyone that has not yet activated their Threads account it literally tells you that nothing will happen for now, but if and when the user activates the account, you will follow them if they are public or it will request to follow them if they are private.
There's no magic happening here. There's no shadow accounts...you use the SAME login for Instagram and Threads. They obviously know when you activate your threads account and it will just show the list of users who have already completed the signup and requested to follow you
We were armchair warriors on Reddit. Now, we are armchair warriors on Lemmy. insert spidermen pointing fingers at each other meme here
don't see that pluralized everyday, heh
Ah. The Google+ approach to signing up "users".
Yeah all that mess with Google+ and all that came out of it was we lost the + operator in Google Search.
Added to my circle!
But you can't close your threads account without closing your instagram account.
Actually, to Meta's credit here, they do transparently say this when you make an account.
You can send follow requests to all of your Insta friends, and once they activate a Threads profile, they will see any follow requests they may have gotten.
Why would anyone be surprised by this? Zuckerberg would have to be a complete idiot to not use Instagram's existing social graph for Threads.
What I'm surprised about is that he didn't use Facebook.
If you look carefully at Meta's actions in the last few years, you'll notice they're slowly stepping away from the Facebook brand and product. I suspect that they no longer internally consider Facebook to be their main product, giving way for Instagram, which at the moment is a lot more popular and despite the obvious association doesn't have a tainted name the same way Facebook does.
I wondered if it might be something to do with the real name policy on Facebook. Instagram is closer to Twitter in not having such a policy.
That was my first thought as well. Facebook is simply too different to Twitter in ways that Instagram is actually similar. On Facebook you're blogging your life for others to follow. On Instagram and Twitter people are blogging a little of their own, but most users are there to follow others (usually big names or important people) and to comment on events those larger names are blogging about.
Same here. I reread it because I thought I missed the word "Facebook".
I think something that a lot of the comments are missing here is the fact that threads, Instagram and Facebook all have been migrated from individual accounts to ‘meta’ accounts. I’m certain that we will see this happen with many platforms unless there is a serious shift in data protection laws. I don’t personally think it’s great that it’s the case but that’s just how it is. The meta platform is quite similar to how google migrated YouTube users to google accounts way back in the day. This monolithic structure ensures that they can keep your user data in a more streamlined database. From a sys admin and a business perspective it makes a lot of sense. From a user who doesn’t care and already uses all of those services perspective it makes a lot of sense. From a privacy conscious user perspective it makes no sense. Then again metas platform is in no way for the user who cares how their data is being handled.
I guess another perspective is talking about interoperability. It kind of feels like they are taking the web3 (I know it’s a loaded term) approach but instead of applying it in a way that allows free development and communication in a way that basically pulls from decentralized/distributed databases you instead get a centralized monolithic model that creates interoperability within their own walled garden.
Dude there are people with the name poo poo pee pee on Facebook. I regret ever using my real name with Google and Facebook
Meanwhile, I got my first ever Facebook ban because someone salty about losing an argument reported me for using a fake name. I was using my real name, which has a Scandinavian letter in, and had to submit a picture of my fucking passport for fb to unlock my account 🤦
I do find it weird how so many people for both claimed their accounts were suspended or banned for not using a real name, when I never gave them my real name and have kept both of those accounts the entire time without issue. Maybe it's because I don't actually use Facebook; but I still use a lot of Google's shit because there isn't anything better yet.
It's about email if you make account using email and email name and your name not match you will be ban. If you use your mobile number you will not be ban because they don't know your real name you will only get banned if someone report you for using fake name
I had my fake account deactivated for using a made up name a few years ago. I was forced to giving it a real fake name instead of a comedy one. Haven't used it years now so I don't even know if it's still working.
This is very important. Users choose to give their data over to these companies.
They should have that choice, regardless of the repercussions.
It's not really a choice though, is it? They can't access fb without "choosing" that and for many, Facebook used to be/is the only way some people have to socialize or just contact family members.
It's the student loans of privacy.
Not only that, there are parts of the world where FB provides the internet for free and its prohibitively expensive for those people to access the internet otherwise. You can't realistically say those people have a choice.
That's not even broaching the topic of whether or not we should give people "the choice". Generally things that are known to be harmful if used in certain ways aren't allowed to be sold to the general public. We take away "choice" all the time to protect the average idiot, I don't see how this is any different.
Especially as in some countries, fb is The Internet for most people. Without a fb account I have no idea about events in my area and miss out on private sales.
They do have a choice, just like we can choose to use the fediverse instead of the metaverse.
They chose what's popular, regardless of the consequences. They should be free to do that just as we should be free to do this.
Personally, I think this should be more popular, but I don't control the world and don't care to.
Have you ever heard of a little thing called coercion? False choice? Emotional blackmail?
To pretend that it's a straightforward choice is downright asinine.
Lol, what?
They have something that people need. Not kinda want. NEED. They know this and they're using that leverage to make people agree to things that they never would otherwise. It may technically be legal, but it's extremely unethical and nowhere near an unencumbered choice.
Do you get it now? If not, that's too bad. I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
Err.. no they don't.
I think you need to brush up on the definitions of "want" and "need," lol.
They did say "X milions of accounts were ACTIVATED in one day", not "created".
That number actually seems pretty low now, considering the number of Instagram accounts is already in the billions. Maybe they didn't activate all of them to make it seem more believable?
Yeah but the didn't launch on the EU yet.
Thanks for the reminder to delete my Instagram account. Though I've never posted anything there, I've used it to follow some people.
Is it too much to hope that all of Meta crashes and burns? It's infuriating seeing Meta, and corporations like them, harvest all of our information...
What I can't figure is... who sits down and thinks "fuck Elon Musk and Twitter, I'm sick of this bullshit" and then follows that logic with "you know what I need more of in my life? Fuckin' FACEBOOK, yeah."
I think novelty is an unfortunately large part of this. I day unfortunately because I think it’s very lame that we find creating accounts on servers providing the same service as another service we already an account on … interesting.
“We were promised flying cars and instead got 160 characters”. Well now we’ve got 160 characters … twice?!
Meaningless superficial cheap FOMO weaponised as advertising fodder. Shameful really.
Nice little webcomic that captures the sentiment: https://mastodon.social/@robcottingham/110679764036454402
They might not be real supporters. They are probably shill accounts forum sliding and doing the same things to control consensus they have done everywhere else.
This is so true. I wish there was a will/way to eliminate bots altogether on a platform. The more popular a platform is, the more bots swarm in to sway the opinions of the crowd - political opinions, consumer opinions, you name it. Reddit was lousy with bots. Constant ceaseless opinion farming. What's to stop Lemmy from becoming just as obnoxious?
Yes it does feel like swapping a ticket for the Titanic with a ticket for the Lusitania.
And now Meta knows when she's having her period, the phone number of her gynecologist, and what period products she buys... thanks to the app spying on her health and fitness, contact, and shopping data.
#WTF
Can we please stop with the misinformation campaign.
Everyone on here is trying to pat each other on the back by being better than Reddit.
So far no one on here acts differently from Reddit, no matter how much you guys like to pretend lol.
“Shadow accounts” lol. It’s literally your instagram account. Threads is built on top of Instagram. None of this is some hidden secret.
Sir, this is Lemmy.
I'd you have to create a threads account, which shares and logins to your Instagram account, for it to be active, but people are being sent advice to follow accounts which haven't been activated, then this is bad faith behaviour and not misinformation.
not really. If the account never activates on Threads then nothing happens. It’s just a convenience. If they don’t offer this feature then you have to consistently keep checking to see when your friends activate their account and go find them. It’s objectively a worse experience to do it that way
Just deleted my Instagram account. I really want go delete Facebook and remove all things Meta from my life.
i did the reverse. deleted my facebook years ago but holding onto my instagram for now. i hardly use it anymore but it’s nice to keep in contact with old friends, but i’m on the fringe of deleting it
It'd be a luxury for me to delete insta but as a cartoonist that'd be just shooting myself in the foot. That said. I don't have a FB anymore and only content post to both IG and Reddit these days. I do all my hangin' here now :)
If anyone was bothering to listen, we've discovered that big tech uses a lot of fraud to make themselves look bigger than they are, especially early on
Sounds like Google+ all over again...
It basically is, haha.
Let's look at history repeat itself
For what I've heard they reserve existing Instagram usernames so no one can register with your Instagram username, so it's not as bad at it might sound
Thats the positive side, but im 99% sure that isnt why they did it.
You mean to say... They are preemptively manipulating people?? Noooo!
You cannot register a new username on Threads only. Threads username = Instagram username. If the username is already taken on Instagram, then it is also not available on Threads.
This feature can be achieved very easily by them without making accounts. They already have a list of Instagram usenames. When a new user makes an account on Threads, check the username against a simple list of Instagram usernames and if it matches, throw an error stating the username is not available.
Why does that person need to have an actual account on Threads?
Why does that person need to have an actual account on Threads?
They don’t. They just use their existing Instagram account.
In fairness, it's pretty smart, IMHO: one of the big difficulties in getting a social site started is getting a critical mass of people together to sustain conversation. Facebook already has plenty of Instagram users, so giving them all access to Threads seems like a pretty good way to bootstrap Threads.
Does anyone remember Google+? When they tried to make everyone with a YouTube account also have a Google+ account.
Spoiler alert: it didn't go well
Which is a pity because the ideas of having "circles" was actually clever. Or at least I thought so back then. I wonder how modern social media would look like if they all implemented that.
Sadly, it was destined to fail. In Diaspora and in Google+.
The thing is, while people definitely do have different circles, they don't like to think about these circles in an explicit way.
Facebook has had something like this for a while now, you can set visibility settings on every post, but again almost nobody uses it.
Will "deleting" my Instagram account make a difference at all?
your treads account is apart of your instragram account. You can't delete one and not the other. Meta said they already working away to delete just one
Interesting. Weren't they working on a way to have a unified login for FB, IG, and Whatsapp at some point?
I delete the IG app periodically anyways (it's a time suck). Haven't put it back since Threads went live so not even sure what things are looking like anymore. I'm too old for this lol
I think it would then delete any account in both Instagram and Threads.
But there's no need to do that. If you already have Instagram and your happy with it, there's nothing extra you need to worry about just because there's a shadow account pre set up for you in Threads.
It's a shady way for them to push their new service, but it's not like they suddenly have any more info on you than they already had.
Eh, I already have a love/hate relationship with IG. If I cared more about internet privacy, I wouldn't have a smart phone or any online accounts.
I only use instagram 1 day per year, it’s usually in July. Today was that day for using instantghram and I uploaded 4 vacation photos. My iPhone battery dropped like a rock afterwards and even plugged into a 2.1 amp tablet charger and it could barely make headway recharging my phone. I may cut loose my threads, now.
It’s literally the same account you already have.
Threads isn't "successful", they just happen to own the social graph. Why can't people see this?
Is this not basically what google and Microsoft do with their stuff, minus the subscribe even though they aren't there yet bit? It's your meta account, regardless if you're using that particular feature?
So it's made of mostly fake accounts from Instagram. That has to be the shadiest thing I've seen from a social media app. Just making "shadow" accounts from other social media apps to artificially boost it's analytics.
I especially noticed this as someone that lives in the EU and decided to check it out using a VPN. 90% of my friends are also from inside the EU and can't download the app but they were all in my list of suggested people.
Yet another example of meta being extra fucking creepy
In other news, Facebook Messenger somehow knows I have a Facebook account!
i knew accounts were being automatically created and thats why i don't believe the numbers
Accounts are not automatically being created.
Copy, paste, succes
They already advertised this in a way though.
I think one of the links for IG is Threads.instagram.con
That alone made me think they’re going to end up finding a way to merge the two or make them paired.
As horrible as this obviously is, it's also quite clever.
Very clever!
Is this a reported news, or a speculation? Really curious, before I start going around, repeating it.
Been seeing that a lot around here. Pics or it didn't happen.
People are all too eager to believe stuff if it feeds into their preconceived ideas about these companies.
it's true that they have shadow accounts for Instagram accounts cause threads is currently operating under Instagram, I don't know if that's factored into their 30 million user count tho
When you follow one of the shadow accounts it says something like "they'll respond when they join threads" or something
It's true. As people who I follow on Instagram have started to sign up for Threads it has notified me that we're following each other. There's an option when you sign up to allow it to do that. And if you set up a private account, then you still have to approve people who follow you. But this way, you don't have to worry about remembering to check if someone has signed up yet after you sign up.
I have two Instagram accounts and I created a Threads account on one. Searched for the other and there’s nothing I can find for it. Definitely can’t follow the second account on Threads.
I’m not trying to be a Meta apologist here. I trust them about as far as I can throw a car (especially given the insane amount of data collection mentioned in the App/Play Stores) but in my limited test I don’t see a way to follow an account until you activate it on Threads
Well, it's basically an extension to your insta account. So I imagine when you sign up, it sends requests to others you know to make it seem like everybody uses it.
It’s funny how people continue to think that joining threads is optional.
big numbers for ego boosting headlines and ad sales
They did this with Facebook accounts to instagram too. My brother has never downloaded instagram yet he's my top follow suggestion all the time and it just uses his Facebook profile picture automatically
I have only an Instagram account, checked just now with a friend who has instagram, Facebook, and now threads. He cannot find me on threads at all, so either this isn't done to EVERYONE on Instagram, or these are just baseless rumors being spread around.
yuck!
I don't see anybody posting there after the first day, save for brand and meme pages
So they peer pressure Insta users to use Threads?
I don't see anything wrong with this
I assumed this was the case and that any reporting on "users" and the "historical" nature of their short time to 10M users was 100% BS.
I think the strategy is great and I would do the same that they are doing, except I'd leave out the bit where I crowed about reaching 10M users in 7 hour or 100M in a few days. It's too obviously a lie supported by the ability to leverage one network into another.
That is just messed up.
Oh no the social network's new app uses the social network from the old app....
What did you expect? Honestly, this doesn't seem nefarious, just a smart way to bootstrap your new product.
Keep in mind, they technically don't even have to use Instagram's internal data to do that, they could have scraped publicly available Instagram / Twitter data to do the same.
This happened to me. Joined threads and what do I see? Signal and instantly had a bunch of random accounts follow me.
I think I'm sticking to Mastodon and Pixelfed.
Add far I remember they did something similar for Facebook/meta/"insert new name here" back then, I remember someone made a lawsuit.
I'm surprised that people think it would be different...
Holy shit that's why they bundled it in with Instagram? So they can inflate the adoption rate?
Not being up on (or caring about) what evil Meta is up to I was wondering how they got 90M users overnight, that splains it.
Shocking
Yeah I heard about a user whose boyfriend had friends and sent an invite on the app. The only problem, the boyfriend hadn't created a threads account.
Of course that's why they had so many new accounts so fast! And that's why removing the Threads account also deletes your Instagram one! No way a bad app like that, missing the basic features (front what I've read in reviews), would have so many users so fast!
There's no way an app with 2 billion accounts couldn't have 1 percent of it's users take 30 seconds to sign up for a Twitter alternative they've been waiting for? Why is this such a conspiracy to people?
Because they really like conspiracies. Meta is only the regular level of evil it was before, it's not a new improved variety of evil.
They're so gross lol
What fediverse app is this
This seemed obvious the moment they said 10m accounts on launch. People aren't that proactive
Yes they are. There were tons of people waiting to leave Twitter for something better. What makes Threads the better alternative is they already have Instagram accounts and so does everybody they know. Joining Threads took me 30 seconds.
It seems obvious because they literally said that’s what they’re doing. They’re not trying to hide it.
If you have an Instagram account, it literally takes a single click to sign up for Threads. Your Instagram account is the same as your Threads account.
It’s like how your Gmail account is the same as your Google Drive account.
they can be sued for this right?
Sure, and then they'll be fined for what looks like a huge amount of money to us regular folks but to a corporation like Meta is essentially a slap on the wrist, and they'll keep doing illegal shit.
We really need to start charging corporations GDP of Switzerland-level sums if we want them to behave ethically.
I mean, if the US is serious about the whole "corporate personhood" thing, surely that makes corporations eligible for the death penalty?
You're assuming the Supreme Court has legitimacy and principles. About that...
The rule of GDPR is €10,000 or 5% of annual gross earnings (not net) per incident, whichever is greater.
Even the likes of Meta don't want to deal with that kind of fine hence why Threads has not been released in the EU.
So it is totally achievable, the problem is the US government don't actually want to fix the problem because of lobbying.
Nah, the fine needs to be equal to what their revenue was from having that illegal thing to begin with.
Cat: Not equal, triple. Need to make it HURT.
Fine? Fine.
$1.3 billion
$275 million
$400 million
I smell an antitrust lawsuit coming up. Whether we hate Twitter or not, they could have a valid case against Meta here as this shit is anti-competitive as fuck. If Elon is smart enough, and that's a big if, he could seize the opportunity to sue Meta over this and win. To just be able to recycle existing Instagram users gives Meta an unfair advantage over existing microblogging social media platforms.
Using an advantage does not mean it's anti competitive.
It is anti-competitive because it is like Windows forcing Internet Explorer as a default, which the EU for instance ruled anti-competitive in the past.
But they aren't forcing Threads as a default. They are associating Instagram accounts to Threads accounts, the same way Google associates GMail accounts to GDrive.
We all hate Facebook, but can we hate them for the things that they actually do, instead of inventing false reasons to hate them?
Good point, the GMail and GDrive analogy is indeed more accurate. Though I don't believe Google is a good example as it is actually the subject of many antitrust lawsuits.
There's no planet where a viable antitrust case exists. That is pure unbridled delusion.