---

American and Israeli schools encourage parents to remove their children’s accounts on social media. They do this because they believe that Hamas terrorists could use popular apps as a weapon to spread the news of the brutal killings.

---

Schools across the United States and Israel are urging parents to ensure their children delete TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Telegram “immediately” in anticipation of the terrorist group Hamas broadcasting videos executing hostages it has taken in its attack against Israel.

Hamas’ spokesperson warned the group would post pictures of its captured civilians if Israel attacked Gazans without prior warning. White House: In addition to 150 Israelis taken hostage, there may also be at least twenty missing Americans among those held by Hamas. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. Government, and some of its members have also been declared terrorists.

“Dear Parents: We have been notified that soon there will be videos sent of the hostages begging for their lives,” one school wrote in a memo to families reviewed by SME. “Please delete TikTok from your children’s phones. We cannot allow our children to see them.”

“It’s hard for us, it’s impossible for us, to digest all of the content displayed on various social networks,” said the note, which SMETranslated from Hebrew A separate letter in Hebrew called on parents to delete Facebook and Telegram from their kids’ phones, in addition to TikTok.

In New Jersey, this letter was sent to almost 1,000 parents and students at a private high school.

“Local psychologists have reached out to us and informed us that the Israeli government is urging parents to tell their children to delete Instagram and TikTok immediately,” the principal wrote in an email seen by SME. “We strongly advise our students to do the same as soon as possible. … As one Israeli psychologist noted, ‘The videos and testimonies we are currently exposed to are bigger and crueler than our souls can contain.’”

SMEFor security purposes, the school names have been removed. Scores of parents in Arizona, New York and Canada as well as the U.K., claimed on social media that they too had been given this guidance by schools.

“The videos and testimonies we are currently exposed to are bigger and crueler than our souls can contain.”

---

Since Hamas waged its surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, gruesome videos of the violence have quickly gone viral on the world’s most widely-used social media platforms, testing the companies’ policies and processes aimed at preventing or removing harmful content. Graphic reels of bloodied women who’d been raped, kidnapped or killed—and whose corpses were then paraded around Gaza as soldiers sat on them and onlookers spit on them—have been easy to find across the major platforms.

News of schools blasting out letters urging families to delete popular apps prompted Senator Rick Scott to call on the platforms to remove troubling posts and accounts that “instill fear and create chaos” and prevent Hamas from monetizing them in any way. “We’ve seen reports of babies savagely beheaded. The parents of children are shot. The elderly dragged through the streets,” Scott said. “Now Iran-backed Hamas wants to inflict more terror by sharing videos of hostages begging for their lives in Gaza. Companies that operate social media MUST act. TikTok, Instagram (Meta), X and every other social media platform have an obligation to stop these terrorists from distributing posts containing violence and murder and collecting financial support for their terror operations.”

TikTok and Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the schools’ concerns and how the companies are approaching the possibility that Hamas terrorists may try to weaponize mainstream platforms to spread these violent videos.

TikTok’s policies state that it does not allow “violent and hateful organizations or individuals” on the platform. The policy states that mass murderers, hate or criminal organizations, and violent extremists are all prohibited. Meta also prohibits organizations and individuals “organizing or advocating for violence against civilians… or engaging in systematic criminal operations.” That includes groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, such as Hamas, or individuals designated as terrorists. “We remove praise, substantive support, and representation of [these] entities as well as their leaders, founders, or prominent members,” Meta’s rules state.

Politicians are not only concerned with viral videos that show violence. The sites have also spread misinformation regarding the war. This includes deceptive video clips about purported damage, victims and rescues. The misinformation spread because many people on the ground turned to social media for updates, especially X (formerly Twitter).

For example, European commissioner Thierry Breton demanded action from X on Tuesday to address “illegal content and disinformation” being spread in the EU—warning that the company’s moderation (or lack thereof) of this material could violate the bloc’s Digital Services Act. The Digital Services Act of the EU could be violated by the company’s moderation (or lack thereof) of this material. a letter to owner Elon Musk, Breton called on X to be clearer about what’s allowed on the site when it comes to terrorist or violent content and faster to take it down. The platform has been plagued by “fake and manipulated images and facts,” including “repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games,” Breton wrote, creating a “risk to public security and civic discourse.” Musk replied that “our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports.”

At X, the conflict is arguably the company’s highest-stakes challenge yet since Musk took over Twitter one year ago. Its safety crew said this week that it has seen a surge of active users in the conflict area and that X leaders were deploying “the highest level of response” to protect discourse as the crisis intensifies. This includes the removal of new Hamas accounts, monitoring antisemitic speeches and working with industry anti-terrorism group, Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism to track problem trends. Its tolerance of graphic content appears to be high.

“We know that it’s sometimes incredibly difficult to see certain content, especially in moments like the one unfolding,” the safety team’s statement said. “In these situations, X believes that, while difficult, it’s in the public’s interest to understand what’s happening in real time.”

Rina Torchinsky contributed reporting.

Forbs: More From ForbesBillionaire Ackman and Others Promise Not to Hire Harvard Students who Signed a Letter Criticizing IsraelYou can also contact us by clicking here. Brian BushardForbs: More From ForbesBiden: Americans are among Hamas hostagesYou can also contact us by clicking here. Sara DornForbs: More From ForbesHamas Imprisons Israeli Soldiers And CiviliansYou can also contact us by clicking here. Antonio Pequeño IV

Meta makes changes just days before deadline for users to feeds within the EU to ensure compliance with Digital Services Act.

By August 25, the company must comply with the DSA. This requires that platforms classified as Very Large Online Platforms give their users the choice to turn off personalized feeds and return to an algorithmic feed.

TikTok took a similar step earlier in the month. It removed personalized results from its For You page and automatically opted users aged 13-17 out of receiving personalized ads, based on previous activities.

Nick Clegg is the president of Global Affairs. He says that the DSA “is a huge deal, not only for European technology companies, but also for tech companies operating in the EU. It will have an impact on how Europeans feel when they turn on their mobile phones and laptops.”

EU users will only be able view Instagram Stories or Facebook Reels of accounts that they have followed, in order chronologically from latest to oldest. Search results are based solely on what they search for, not on previous activities.

Meta has also made changes in order to increase transparency, and to conform to the DSA. It’s expanding its Ad Library to display and archive all ads that target people in the EU, along with the dates the ad ran, the parameters used for targeting—age, gender, location and the like—and who the ad was shown to. The ads will be archived for one year.

In addition to its Why Ami Seeing This tool, Facebook has released 22 new system cards. These cards provide information on how AI systems determine what is relevant content and customize the system.

Meanwhile, two new tools for researchers—the Meta Content Library and API—will allow them to search, explore, and filter the publicly available content on a graphical user interface, or through a programmatic API.

Clegg said, “These new tools will allow us to access the widest range of content available on Facebook and Instagram compared to any previous research tool.”

The move brings a very different experience for EU users, compared with those elsewhere, such as the U.S. and the UK—and it’s more than possible that the company will eventually extend some of these privacy rights worldwide.

The company’s goal is to appear as a supporter of the DSA.

Clegg says that it is better to use tools like auditing and reporting to make large platforms such as ours accountable, than to try to manage individual content pieces.

It is important that in this new regulatory climate, the DSA maintains the primacy it holds over national laws and existing legislation to preserve its clarity and consistency, as well as the harmony of the experience people have on our platforms throughout the region.

According to the New York Police Department, Kai Cenat will be charged for inciting violence and an unlawful gathering in Manhattan, on Friday. Thousands of young people descended on New York’s Union Square on Friday after Cenat promised to give away free video game consoles and other prizes.

ABC 7 reported that people in the crowd jumped on cars, threw chairs, and even slapped police officers. According to NYPD, food carts and cop cars were damaged as well. The NYPD reported that at least 65 people, including children, were arrested during the chaos.

“This event grew rapidly, fast. And, again, this is the power of social media,” NYPD chief of department Jeffrey Maddrey said at a press conference on Friday evening, noting that the video game giveaway wasn’t a permitted event.

“We wanted the kids to just comply with us and leave. But we were attacked,” Maddrey continued.

Cenat, who’s 21 years old, was taken into custody but it’s not yet clear whether the influencer has been formally charged. According to NYPD, a 17-year old was admitted with an injury caused by fireworks that was reported as a firearm wound in some media. This was not accurate.

Maddrey emphasized in multiple ways during his press conference held on Friday, that social networks are a force that organizes people and can quickly get out of control.

“We went from 300 kids to thousand kids to a couple thousand kids in minutes. Minutes,” Maddrey stressed.

Cenat’s livestreams of video game play on Twitch are his most popular. However, it was a Facebook post that inspired his followers to come out in Manhattan this Friday. NBC News reports that the Wednesday post had received over 2 million hits by Friday. The message encouraged fans to show up at 4 p.m. ET. That Instagram post is no longer available on the social media site, which is owned by Meta, though it’s not clear if Cenat himself deleted the post.

Cenat was livestreaming as he approached a crowd of New Yorkers. He was offering gift cards and other prizes, such as a Playstation, along with the promise to giveaway the Twitch platform.

“We can’t let this happen here. We can’t let this happen with our young people,” Maddrey said. “So, again, I have to implore the parents. We need your help with this.”

In our world, warning labels are ubiquitous. These alerts have already made their way onto social media. This week, it was revealed that Meta owned Instagram may soon add a notification that will identify when AI has been used to create content on the platform. App researcher Alessandro Paluzzi shared the screenshot of an Instagram page that stated “the creator Meta said this content was edited or created by AI”.

TheVerge.com reported that the discovery of this AI warning tag comes just a few months after Meta along with Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other major AI actors including Google made commitments around responsible AI development to the White House.

AI could generate a lot of content, and these labels are crucial.

The AI shortcut is the shortest route. The technology helps create content, such as visuals or other media that people would not otherwise have time for.

Alert: AI Content

Now it is harder to tell when AI played a part in the creation of content. These labels would be an excellent first step to identifying whether AI was involved.

We view the move to a transparent media environment as extremely positive. While AI has revolutionizing potential, the ease of creation and dissemination of fake images and videos can deceive and manipulate public opinion quickly and on a large scale – they have the potential to completely erode trust in the news cycle and what the public perceives as true,” Eduardo Azanza, CEO of software verification firm Veridas, explained via an email.

Azanza noted that deep-fake images and videos have been used to abuse online users. It will be increasingly difficult to tell the difference between real and fake media as artificial intelligence improves.

The public will rely more on personal instinct if there is no label. Misinformation can spread faster. Azanza said that adding labels can increase transparency, and allow informed media consumption.

Are we about to see more AI labels?

Instagram is just the first social media platform to label that content has been generated by AI—but others could follow.

Rob Enderle is a technology analyst at the Enderle Group and believes that the success of Instagram’s move will be determined by their ability to reliably identify AI-generated material created by other people.

It is likely that as tools improve and become easier to use, the number of people who do it will decrease.

If AI generates more and more content, the labeling may become obsolete.

Enderle said that “this warning initially may provide users with peace of mind, and if this happens, then it could be sufficient to create similar warnings and distribute them until AI-generated material becomes more prevalent.”

However, even if AI is commonplace, human creators may seek to stand out—and thus the labels may still be a necessary evil.

Azanza stated that “if we want AI to be successfully integrated into our everyday lives, large and impactful companies must lead in aligning themselves with regulations and standards which ensure accountability and responsibility.” This will help us build the trust of the public in this technology, and make it work for the good.

Maybe it is time to do something totally new.

Threads was launched not long ago and I immediately jumped in and posted. The number of my followers kept increasing on a regular basis. A few experts also started posting insightful articles. I later discovered that they were copied and pasted from Twitter or Instagram.

When the news first broke about Threads and how easy it is to register — since the app just uses your Instagram login — I thought it would become a big hit. In most cases, I was correct. Over 100 million people have downloaded the microblogging application, which has exploded in use.

As is often the case, initial enthusiasm fades within a few days. One recent report suggests the daily active user count (meaning, people who are actually using the app and don’t just have an account) dropped in half over one week. On July 7, the hype peaked and then fell flat by July 14th. It has about 23 millions active users, down from 49 million just a week ago.

I tracked the exact same course of interest and roughly over the same time period. At first I posted a few posts, and then experimented with short messages and links. I began following people to scan their feeds. My Twitter activity was paused for a while as I focused my attention on the newest app, if an app developed by a company worth $754 billion can be called a newbie. kid.

An early summary of the app hit the nail square on the head: Threads doesn’t do anything new. The app looks like Twitter. I don’t think that’s why I’m already bored using the app, though.

Here’s the reason. I’m a little bored with the entire social media space. Post and click. Like and follow. Repeat this a thousand times. I’ve mentioned before I’m not looking forward to building up my following yet again on a new app. It’s all starting to remind me way too much of the audio-chat app called Clubhouse, which also forced everyone to build up a following. The strange feeling I had when trying to promote my own audio chat and then realizing that five other people were joining was still fresh in my mind. What is the solution? As always, slowly build up your following. This is why I skipped it.

One way to describe social media is that we’re all helping build a vast advertising engine — one follower at a time. We’re doing all of the work and the companies that make these apps reap the benefits. We’re enamored with the idea of having a lot of followers, seeing likes on our posts, and hoping to land in the spotlight and go viral. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg keeps counting his money and softly chuckling to himself about how we’re stupid enough to play along.

Were we dumb? We’re not stupid. We’re Humans are able to understand and communicate with each other. Social media apps know that we’re all trying to seek attention and we’re all information seekers. Both we, as consumers and informers, want to know more. The problem is that this digital treadmill keeps running forever, and there’s never an end in sight. That’s really the whole point of social media, to convince us there’s a goal and at the same time never allowing us to reach the goal. It’s perfectly alluring. Threads, the app for iOS and Android devices is just another never-ending scam.

Unfortunately, I think it’s starting to unravel.

I’m going to keep using the app and see how it all unfolds. Data suggests that many users have tried out the app and then left. The interface looks clean and neat, but I’ve yet to witness a full-blown flame war.

I’m sticking around for a while. It would be nice to have a little more understanding of the reasons we continue to use social media applications, our hopes and dreams, as well as if someone could figure out how to finally make them worth using. The treadmill will continue to be used until that time.

Topline

Twitter is in turmoil after its recent $44 billion deal with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and SpaceX’s Elon Musk. This includes layoffs and policy changes, but most importantly, it could be on the hook to pay hundreds of millions.

Important Facts

Big Number

$15 billion. That’s how much Fidelity valued Twitter at in May—a third of the money forked over by Musk for his purchase of the platform last year.

Tangent

Twitter’s legal disputes have been one of several obstacles the platform has faced since it Musk bought it. A number of the platform’s largest advertisers left it in early 2018. Twitter’s U.S. advertising revenue in April was $88 million, down 59% from the same month last year—a stat that surfaced a few months after Musk claimed the site was “breaking even.” Twitter has also endured a series of outages and glitches that have temporarily left users without the ability to post tweets, load images and share external links. In the midst of its troubles, Meta’s rival app, Threads, launched July 5. Instagram lead Adam Mosseri said in an interview with the Verge that Twitter’s “volatility” and “unpredictability” under Musk is what created an opening for Meta to compete with Twitter through the launch of Threads.

The Key Background

Musk’s ownership of Twitter is just one source of legal troubles for the billionaire. The billionaire’s Tesla and SpaceX companies have seen a constant revolving-door of lawsuits, with mixed results. Tesla was accused of failing to act on harassment and discrimination claims. The complaint was filed not long after California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed suit against Tesla, accusing it of discriminating against Black workers. In April, a former Tesla worker was awarded $3 million following an extensive lawsuit that claimed the company’s work environment to be racist. Musk, Tesla and SpaceX were also sued for $258 billion for an alleged dogecoin “Pyramid Scheme” last year. Musk asked a federal judge to throw out the case in April, with attorneys saying the “court should put a stop to plaintiffs’ fantasy and dismiss the complaint.” Musk won a court case in February when a jury found that he wasn’t liable for defrauding Tesla shareholders through tweets suggesting he would take the company private.

SME Valuation

Musk has a net-worth of approximately $245.6 billion, which is estimated to be the highest in the entire world.

Continue Reading

Former employees sueing Twitter say it’s not cooperating on arbitration, and asks to keep case in court (SME)

Twitter Threatens Lawsuit Against Meta Over ‘Copycat’ Threads App (SME)

Meta’s new social media platform Threads will shift focus to adding several new features a week, including a “following” feed and the ability to search for posts, after rolling out a fairly barebones—but popular—app to take on Twitter last week.

There has been no shortage of Twitter rivals in recent years, with the likes of Parler, BlueSky, Spill, Mastodon and Truth Social among others that have been proclaimed the next big thing in concise social messaging to the masses. Yet, the truth remains that even with the backing of former President Donald Trump in the case of Truth Social, it has been near impossible for any platform to reach the popularity of Twitter.

That could change this week as Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced it would create a new “conversation” app dubbed Threads. The question asked this week is whether it could be an actual Twitter killer or will become just another social app?

Meta’s Brand New Threads

Meta isn’t reinventing the wheel, but it did essentially reinvent social media with Facebook and redefined it again when it acquired Instagram. Now it could leverage its large user base by offering a platform like Twitter but still offering a bit more.

“Based on the mock designs that have been released, Threads’ interface is almost a direct replica of Twitter,” said Luke Lintz, CEO of Highkey Enterprises, a digital marketing and social media firm.

“The major difference between the two platforms will be Threads components, which will likely be more enticing to current and potential Twitter users interested in using a short-form blogging network,” said Lintz. “Threads is also backed by Meta and will be directly connected to people’s Instagram usernames and followers, which will allow the new platform to tap into Instagram’s massive user base from day one, creating a critical mass of users that will drive conversation and engagement on the new platform.”

Enemy With Deep Pockets

Another notable difference this time around is that Twitter is facing a challenge not from a rival most users never heard of, and more importantly Threads could be well-funded in a way even Truth Social wasn’t.

“Twitter is currently strapped for cash and looking for as many ways as possible to extract revenue from users and lower costs, while Meta will spare no expense to take over the market share of short-form blogging with Threads,” added Lintz.

In addition, Threads won’t try to court a particular user base. Whereas Truth Social and Parler were two social media platforms that sought to appeal to a conservative demographic, and Mastodon was all about courting more liberally-minded Twitter users, Threads won’t be so partisan—at least in theory.

“When a social media platform only appeals to one side of the political spectrum, the viewpoints and discussions on the platform are mundane and don’t involve the significant components of virality, including controversy, discussions of opposing viewpoints, and many other things,” explained Lintz. “Truth Social and Parler are entirely different from Threads because the pre-existing biggest social media platforms in the world are owned by Meta, and are able to help rapidly scale Threads from day one in terms of user growth and app development.”

Luring Twitter Users

Threads could lure users away from Twitter—notably those who are frustrated by Elon Musk’s new policies related to Twitter Blue, as well as the updates he announced last week, including limiting the number of Tweets each user can read each day.

“It remains to be seen but hope is running high for a Twitter alternative—particularly after this past weekend’s double whammy of account-locking and piling on with its introduction of rate limits,” added Susan Schreiner, technology and social media analyst at C4 Trends. “As if this wasn’t enough, Twitter also broke TweetDeck, long used by power-users and teams, allowing multiple users to log in and manage group accounts or showing you all the tweets being faved/liked by the accounts you follow.”

Twitter arguably soared to great heights because it democratized communications, and it initially enabled a voice for anyone and as time went on, people realized how it could affect culture and it became a town square for all.

“It even gave the powerless a sense of power and being heard. Now, one of the richest people in the world has broken Twitter even more and silence voices in the name of greed or perhaps his own personal political bias,” warned Schreiner.

So Meta

The easy connection between Instagram and Threads could allow for easier functionality and increased exposure for creators.

“There will be no restriction on the amount of Threads you can load daily,” said Lintz. “The interface will likely be better than Twitter because Meta has a lot more capital to spend on research and development compared to Twitter, which has been cutting costs and laying off thousands of technical people.”

It Is Meta’s Battle To Lose

It was last month that Elon Musk tweeted that he’d be “up for a cage fight” with Mark Zuckerberg, and while many found humor in it, the actual joke could be on Musk. Whether there is an actual cage match is still yet to be seen, but Musk may have put Twitter in a position where it can be taken down by a rival.

“Elon Musk has set a near-perfect storm for Threads to displace Twitter rapidly. He has driven users away from the platform lowering the risk for people who remain on it to lose contacts if they move, both users and advertisers are highly displeased with what he has done to the platform; he has been dumping employees at an alarming rate creating substantial resources for Threads to acquire them to focus the competitive effort better,” explained technology industry analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.

Though others have tried, there may be a decent chance that Twitter may have met its match—and without the need for a cage for the respective company heads to climb into.

“Threads could bypass Twitter using Twitter’s disenfranchised and existing user base to get there,” added Enderle. “In short, Threads is only a Twitter killer because Musk has already all but killed Twitter. Zuckerberg only needs to deliver the killing blow.”

Top Line

Meta’s Threads app, which shares a similar format with Twitter and is widely seen as Elon Musk’s most significant competition since the billionaire took over the social media platform, was launched Wednesday evening in a surprise announcement.

The Key Facts

Key Background

Meta’s move to create a more direct competitor to Twitter comes amid rocky times for Musk-led Twitter. Recently, the platform implemented a “temporary” limit to the number of posts Twitter users can see on a daily basis, prompting backlash from users. The initial restriction on viewing was 300 posts a day for new, unverified users. For older unverified users the limit was 600. Verified accounts that cost $8 per month are limited to viewing 6,000 articles a day. Since Musk’s takeover in October, Twitter has experienced major outages and hundreds of layoffs. Its valuation also decreased. Mastodon, and most recently Bluesky Social attracted significant attention when Twitter’s complaints increased. But Threads—integrated with Instagram and backed by a company with a $756 billion market cap—is expected to be a far more significant threat to Twitter than similar text-focused social media platforms. Speculation around Meta’s new platform had floated around for months. In March, a report from MoneyControl said a Twitter competitor codenamed “P92” was being developed by Meta.

SME’ Valuation

We estimate Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to be worth $104.4 billion, making him the seventh richest person in the world behind Musk’s No. 1 ranking—a spot secured by his estimated $251.1 billion net worth.

Read More

Welcome To ‘Threads,’ Facebook’s Twitter Killer (SME)

Threads, Meta’s Twitter competitor, is now live (TechCrunch)

Meta, Facebook’s parent, released Threads for pre-order at the iOS App Store. A bare-bones website version was also leaked this morning. That lets us take an advance look at the company’s answer to Elon Musk’s Twitter.

“Say more” with Threads, Meta says.

From the company’s App Store description:“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow. Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things — or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.”

Meta chose Instagram over Facebook as the base social network to power Threads. It’s not a great option for me personally (I barely use Instagram), but Instagram is a much more youth-focused, hip and growing property in the Meta portfolio. Early adopters are able to retain their Instagram username and follow people automatically.

Threads allows you to like a post with a heart-shaped symbol. You can also comment and re-thread (???Threads’ version of sharing or tweeting is a recycling symbol. There’s also the typical Instagram arrow to send a post to a specific person or group of people, or another social platform.

Threads will launch with fairly minimal and basic functionality at first, including the ability to control viewability of your threads to anyone, only profiles you follow, or only people you’ve mentioned in the thread. Oddly, there’s no option to limit viewability to people who follow you (at least based on the screenshots Meta has shared so far).

One thing that the internet has not missed is Threads’ extensive list of privacy disclosures: data that the app collects that Apple’s iOS App Store requires apps to share.

The long list reflects Meta’s deep knowledge of its users, especially multiplatform users who are also on Facebook, Messenger or WhatsApp. The following data “maybe be collected and linked to your identity” on Threads:

• Health & fitness
• Financial information
• Information about Contact Person
• Content created by users
• Browse history
• Usage data
• Diagnostics
• Purchases
• Find out where to go
• Contacts
• Search the history
• Identifiers
• Protecting sensitive information
• Additional Data

It’s a very long list, and might be a result of a cautious first-launch manager’s decision to add everything just for full disclosure safety, to be amended later. Using Threads, if you don’t, is still a significant privacy step, just like using Facebook and Instagram. Meta connects a variety of information about you to help target advertisements.

Twitter, on the other hand, isn’t much better. It requests almost as many data points for tracking and linkage.

After a brief blip in functionality, the web-based version of Threads has returned to its pre-launch state. The countdown shows the date of the launch. This is expected to be July 6th.

Meta is a social network that can import your friend graph from the very first day. It solves the issue of cold starts most startups face. In addition, you’ll likely eventually be able to cross-post across Meta properties, much as you can from Instagram to Facebook now, which could help content.

Another key factor: whether Twitter can get its act together under its new CEO Linda Yaccarino, who has defended the network’s odd decision to rate-limit access to content.

Topline

Facebook and WhatsApp parent Meta will launch the firm’s long awaited competitor to Twitter, Instagram Threads, on Thursday, escalating the personal rivalry between feuding billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk and firmly throwing down the gauntlet after another chaotic weekend had the platform’s users searching for alternatives.

The Key Facts

What We Don’t Know

It’s not clear when Threads will be launched on Android systems or whether the network will be accessible without the app. A similar listing of Threads reportedly appeared on the Google Play store—which serves Android devices—on Saturday showing similar features, images and descriptions. It was quickly removed. The posting, which didn’t list a date of release, appeared to be an error.

News Peg

Meta’s release of a product to rival Twitter is both timely and expected. Meta, formerly Facebook, has a well documented history of lifting features from competitors—its short-form video feature Reels draws from TikTok, community chats from Discord and disappearing video and photo feature Stories from Snapchat—to varying degrees of success. Twitter is an obvious target, with many users keen to jump ship given the parade of controversy and service issues that has followed Elon Musk’s takeover last year, including drastic revisions to longstanding verification and content moderation policies, cutting company headcount to the bone, changes to who can access platform data and numerous system outages. Most recently, Musk limited the number of posts users—even paying users—could see on Twitter and required users to have registered for accounts to view tweets. With each new development, rivals like Bluesky, Trump’s Truth Social and Mastodon have benefited handsomely, though none have yet managed to gain the kind of traction needed to fully take on an established social media giant like Twitter. With its vast resources and established social networks, Threads’ arrival could pose a serious threat to Twitter.

SME Valuation

$101.5 billion. That’s how much SMEMark Zuckerberg’s estimated worth is shown by our live tracker. Zuckerberg’s fortune is largely derived from his stake in Meta and it makes him the 10th richest person in the world. Musk’s estimated net worth is $249,4 billion. He currently occupies the number one position. SME’ list of the world’s wealthiest people. The billionaires have been fighting for several years. However, their feud just recently broke out in the open and now they are ready to do battle. It is unclear whether the agreed upon “cage match” will ever happen.

Continue Reading

Behind the Musk-Zuckerberg ‘Cage Match’ Is a Yearslong Billionaire Feud (WSJ)