Meta’s Twitter Rival, Threads, will not be launching in the EU this week

Threads will not be launching in the EU this week, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission confirms

It has been confirmed that Meta’s upcoming Twitter competitor, Threads, will not be launching in the EU this week, despite the app’s confirmed launch in the UK and US this Thursday. This was confirmed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), which claims that Meta has confirmed that they do not plan to launch their app in the EU “at this point”. 

Meta’s Threads application is designed to import data from Instagram, including behavioural and advertising data. In the US, the app is due to collect a huge amount of data from users, including location data, financial information, browsing histories, purchases, contacts, search history and other sensitive information.

It is probable that the EU’s data privacy rules are complicating Meta’s plans for Threads in Europe. Since the UK is no longer in the EU, Meta can more easily release Threads into the UK market. At this time, it is unknown when Meta plans to release threads into the EU market. 

In recent days, Twitter has limited the number of Tweets that users can view (supposedly temporarily), blocked Tweets from being viewed by unregistered users, and have confirmed that TweetDeck will become a premium Twitter Blue feature. These changes have forced many Twitter user to seek an alternative app, and Meta’s ready to capitalise on this with Threads.

In the UK and US, Meta’s Threads service is due to launch tomorrow at around 3 PM BST.  

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