Ten million weave posts on Threads
A new app billed as a rival to Twitter has seen more than 10 million people sign up in its first few hours, according to its owner, Mark Zuckerberg.
Threads, created by Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, went live in the UK at midnight on Thursday night.
The app is available for free in 100 countries – but it is not yet available in the European Union due to regulatory concerns about data protection.
Linked to Instagram, Threads allows users to post up to 500 characters of text and up to five minutes of video and links, as well as pictures.
Chef Gordon Ramsay, pop star Shakira and Mark Hoyle, aka YouTuber LadBaby, have already joined and made their presence on the app known.
Downing Street has said it is considering whether to have Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Threads.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “As with other social media sites we will use the best tools available to us to communicate the government’s priorities to the public … we’ll evaluate it and make a decision at the appropriate time.”
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Energy Secretary Grant Shapps have already signed up.
The launch comes against a backdrop of turbulence at Twitter, which imposed tweet viewing limits last weekend in a move it partly blamed on data harvesting by companies building artificial intelligence models.
Many users have publicly expressed frustrations with
Twitter since Elon Musk took over, partly linked to political views and erratic behaviour, plus difficulty with getting action against abusive trolls, as well as efforts to push more users towards its paid-for Twitter Blue service.
Posting on the new app under the username zuck and using a “mind blown” emoji, Mr Zuckerberg wrote: “10 million sign up in seven hours.”
The platform is directly linked with Instagram, which has more than two billion users. Twitter is estimated to have over 350 million users.
Instagram’s safety guidelines will be enforced on the new platform.
Mr Zuckerberg suggested Threads would be a more wholesome alternative to Twitter, saying: “The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands. I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success.”