Meta’s upcoming Twitter competitor, Instagram Threads, will not launch in the European Union due to privacy concerns, according to Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC).
The development was reported by The Irish Independent, which said the watchdog had reached out to the social media giant about the new product and confirmed that “at this time” the release would not be extended to the EU.
Threads is Meta’s answer to Twitter, scheduled for release on July 6, 2023. It is advertised as “a text-based conversation app that allows Instagram users to discuss everything from today’s hot topics to tomorrow’s trends.” “
Users can also follow the same accounts they already follow on Instagram. The app is already listed on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, but is not yet available for download.
The “App Privacy” section of the App Store states that this application collects a wide range of user data such as health and fitness, purchases, financial information, location information, contact information, contacts, user content, search history and browsing history. is expected. , identifiers, usage data, sensitive information, and diagnostics.
While the DPC has not actively blocked the launch of Threads, Meta is believed to be taking a cautious approach to bringing the service into this privacy-sensitive region. It’s worth noting that Google has postponed the EU launch of its artificial intelligence chatbot Bard for similar reasons.
This development coincided with a series of policy changes at Twitter to prevent unregistered users from using the site on the web and to limit logged-in users to the number of posts they can see per day. enforced a temporary rate limit for
Company owned by Elon Musk Said By “scraping people’s public Twitter data to build AI models” and “manipulating people and conversations on the platform in various ways”, it “can detect bots and other malicious individuals that harm the platform”. We are taking measures to detect and eliminate.
