Let the battle begin.
Twitter now has some competition. Well, maybe it does. Threads — the social media app that could end up being competition for the Elon Musk-owned (and some say Musk-ruined) Twitter — is now live. The Meta-owned, Instagram-companion social network is off to a flying start, with more than 30 million users in the first 16 hours after it went live.
In a post on Threads, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote, “This is as good of a start as we could have hoped for!” He later added, “Feels like the beginning of something special.”
CNN’s Clare Duffy wrote, “The mood on Threads Wednesday night felt a bit like the first day of school, with early adopters rushing to try out the app and write their first posts — and some questioning whether the app could end up being the ‘Twitter killer.’ As of Thursday morning, Threads was the top free app on Apple’s App Store and a top trending topic on Twitter.”
The Instagram part of this is what’s helping Threads get off the ground. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans, who also has covered media extensively in his career, told me, “I think the idea of allowing people to transfer their connections over from Instagram was ingenious. Because the biggest challenge for new social media platforms is developing a community large enough that people want to participate and feel their participation has a tangible result.”
Deggans went on to explain, “As much as critics complained about Elon Musk’s transformation of Twitter, it has remained a place where lots of connections are made and communities continue to converse. Within hours of its inception, there are conversations happening on Threads, because people are importing their connections from another, long-standing social media platform. Right now, it feels a lot like walking into a huge party where you know many of the people, but you have to move around a bit to connect with them in this new place and start having conversations. If there is a sense that those conversations will resonate across a wide range of people with an impact outside the service, then I think Meta will have created a formidable platform.”
Deggans was one of many media observers and experts that I and my Poynter colleagues talked to about Threads’ debut. Check out our piece at Poynter.org.
So can this really be competition for Twitter? Well, despite a decent start, that remains to be seen.
The New York Times’ Mike Isaac wrote, “Many tech companies have tried capitalizing on Twitter’s turmoil in recent months. But Threads has a leg up, backed by Meta’s deep pockets and Instagram’s enormous user base of more than two billion monthly active users around the world.”
“But,” The Washington Post’s Geoffrey A. Fowler and Naomi Nix wrote, “Threads also comes with Meta baggage, including privacy, moderation and algorithmic feed practices that have turned many people off Zuckerberg’s other social networks such as Facebook. For example: From the moment you first log in to Threads, it starts showing you recommended posts from accounts and brands you don’t necessarily follow — or necessarily even care to see.”
Both the Times and Posts stories do a good job of comparing and contrasting Twitter and Threads.
But the question everyone wants to know is can Threads give Twitter serious competition? And, ultimately, could it be the “Twitter killer” that some think (hope?) it will be?
I asked Axios media reporter Sara Fischer if Threads could be a threat to Twitter and she told me, “Yes — not because the advertising dollars will move over immediately, but because it will eventually put a dent in Twitter’s engagement. Once the flywheel begins, and prominent voices start to break news on Threads, it will be harder for Twitter to chase that momentum. They won’t introduce ads to Threads until it reaches much larger adoption.”
Be sure to check out Fischer’s “Meta’s copycat machine,” about apps that have mostly failed for lack of user adoption.
“Most of those apps had users in the hundreds of thousands range,” Fischer said before noting that Threads is already in the 10s of millions.
Threads also has a chance to work because users want it to work, mostly because they are tired of all the drama that comes with Musk and Twitter, including recent and supposed temporary moves that limit the number of tweets one can read in a day, as well as putting its popular TweetDeck behind a paywall starting next month.
The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern and Ann-Marie Alcántara had a smart opening line to their story about it: “If you’re wondering what it’s like to use the new Threads app, just close your eyes and picture Twitter but with a lot less Elon Musk — and that’s exactly the point.”
For the record, and you knew this was coming, Semafor’s Max Tani reported that Twitter sent a letter to Zuckerberg, threatening to sue over what it claims is “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg tweeted for the first time since 2012 and just the second time since 2009. Here’s the pretty good tweet.
Other media news, tidbits and links for your weekend review …
- Powerful piece by St. Louis Post-Dispatch music critic Kevin C. Johnson, who writes, “Why I’m not comfortable reviewing Morgan Wallen’s concerts in St. Louis.” Johnson wrote, “As a Black man, I don’t feel comfortable occupying the predominately white space that is a Morgan Wallen concert — though I’ve occupied many predominantly white spaces, professionally and personally, all my life. In February 2021, video surfaced of Wallen spewing the N-word and other obscenities in a drunken rant outside his home in Tennessee. He apologized, and he and his fans moved on — no biggie. I have not moved on.” Johnson said he isn’t calling for people to protest Wallen by not attending. But he laid out very clearly why he wouldn’t feel comfortable being at the concert. It’s a superb column.
- The Los Angeles Times’ Libor Jany and Richard Winton with “A Black LAPD officer wanted to make a difference. Then, he says, he was racially profiled by his own department.”
- The New York Times’ Emma G. Fitzsimmons writes about New York City mayor Eric Adams in “The Mayor Had a Photo of a Fallen Officer. Was His Story About It True?”
- For Nieman Lab, Sophie Culpepper with “Wesley Lowery talks journalism education, objectivity, and learning by doing.”
- In Thursday’s newsletter, I wrote about how GQ removed a critical story about Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav after Zaslav’s camp complained about it. It turned into a really bad look for GQ. For SFGate, Drew Magary with “David Zaslav kills everything he touches, including GQ.” Yikes, if Zaslav didn’t like the GQ piece, he’s going to hate this one. GQ isn’t going to like it either.
- Published in The Guardian, this piece is from novelist Victoria Amelina, who was killed when a Russian missile hit the pizzeria in Ukraine where she was dining: “Ukraine and the meaning of home.”
- And for CNN, Olesya Khromeychuk with “Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina never got to finish her story. We must tell it for her.”
- Fox Weather has signed meteorologist Bob Van Dillen as an on-air host. Van Dillen was previously a meteorologist for HLN’s “Morning Express with Robin Meade.” He will be based out of New York and start his new job Monday.
- “Undisputed,” the Fox Sports 1 sports debate show starring Skip Bayless, has been on hiatus since co-host Shannon Sharpe voluntarily left the show last month. The show’s official Twitter account tweeted Friday that the show will return Aug. 28. However, still no word on how the show will replace Sharpe. On his weekly video podcast, Bayless said his “dream debate partner” on the show would be NBA legend and TNT analyst Charles Barkley. That is not going to happen. Barkley is trying to work less, not more. And, besides, Barkley doesn’t seem to have much respect for Bayless. Barkley called Bayless an “idiot” on NBA TV during the NBA Finals.
More resources for journalists
- Covering Climate Change Science and Policy in a Polarized World (Seminar, Washington D.C.) — Apply Aug. 14.
- Executive Leadership Summit (Oct.) (Seminar) — Apply by Aug. 14.
- Power of Diverse Voices: Writing Workshop for Journalists of Color (Nov. 15-18) (Seminar) — Apply by Sept. 15.
- Will Work for Impact: Fundamentals of Investigative Journalism (Oct. 2-30) (Online) — Enroll now.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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