Meta finally launches Threads in Europe

UPDATE: Dec. 14, 2023, 2:00 p.m. UTC Threads has finally launched in Europe, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing its arrival in the EU on Thursday. The original story, published Nov. 30, is as follows.

Meta's social media app Threads has one massive drawback compared to its chief competitor, X (formerly Twitter): It's not available in Europe.

The likely reason why Threads, which launched in July 2023, has never become a truly global app is Meta's friction with the European Union, whose regulators don't particularly like Meta's habit of taking EU users' data overseas and processing it there.

Be that as it may, for users in Europe (the author of this article included) this simply means that Threads isn't available (unless you're willing to jump through VPN hoops), and that makes it a lot less alluring as a competitor to X.

This might change soon. According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta is preparing to launch Threads in Europe in December.

The report, which cites people familiar with the matter, claims that Meta will give users in the EU the choise to use Threads "purely for consumption" and "without a profile that allows them to make their own posts."

It's unclear whether any other changes would be introduced for users in Europe, though Instagram and Threads chief Adam Mosseri (the two apps are intertwined for no particularly good reason except for easier onboarding of Instagram's massive user base onto Threads) said that all Threads users are getting the ability to delete their Threads accounts without also deleting their associated Instagram accounts.

Estimates from tech analyst Debra Aho Williamson, who spoke with the WSJ, say that Threads launching in the EU could mean another 40 million monthly users for the app in 2024. Current estimates say that Threads has 73 million monthly users globally, compared to Twitter which has an estimated 336 million users.