Threads THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

Meta's text-based app Threads has hit 100 million users within a week of its launch. Reports point to Twitter's traffic slowing

- Jyotsna Sharma

THREADS HAS TWITTER in knots! The new textbased Meta app is causing quite a stir in just about a week of its launch and reports say Twitter traffic is falling. At the time of writing this report, Threads has reportedly reached 100 million sign ups, which took over two years for Instagram to achieve. It is however, the integration with Instagram that has made the new app easier for users to jump onto. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared the news of the platform reaching this record number, mostly organically in just five days, on Threads.

Elon Musk, Tesla and Space X CEO bought out Twitter last year for $44 billion and has since made multiple changes to the platform, some of which you would recall made users unhappy. There’s been a fair amount of controversy since he took over. And, since the launch of Threads, which is seen as an alternative to Twitter, a lot has been said between both the founders about which is a better app.

A few days back, Twitter threatened to sue Meta for allegedly violating its intellectual property rights. According to Twitter, apparently Meta has poached some of its former employees who have had access to trade secrets and confidential information. These employees were then directed to work on the Threads app. Musk put out a post saying – “Competition is fine. Cheating is not”.

Of course, Meta’s Communication Director, Andy Stone responded by posting on Threads “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not a thing.”