Threads published by Instagram has not reached the European region. They have said the “uncertainty” of EU regulation is the reason.
Threads is a very similar service to Twitter. Mateusz Slodkowski
Last week, Meta-owned Instagram released a social media service called Threads, which was called a Twitter killer. The problem of entering the European market was the regulation of digital services.
In the rest of the world, the service has already gathered more than 100 million users during the week, and managed to undermine Twitter’s position as a microblogging platform.
As the official reason, Meta has stated that the “regulatory uncertainty” related to the law restricting competition in the digital market prevents the spread of Threads in Europe. The law will enter into force next year.
– This reason just amuses me. Regulation isn’t about uncertainty, it’s about certainty, policy manager at the European Digital Rights Campaign Group Diego Naranjo said.
Digital market competition is limited, for example, in such a way that technology companies cannot only favor their own services. Instagram and Threads are connected to each other, and you can’t delete your Threads account, for example, if you don’t delete your Instagram account at the same time.
Problems in complying with the Data Protection Act
Threads has been criticized for, among other things, how much data it collects about its users. This has also caused Metala problems in complying with the European Data Protection Act (GDPR).
Naranjo thinks that Meta’s tactic is to spread the service to the rest of the world, in which case there would be more pressure in Europe to accept the service in its region. However, according to him, this tactic of political pressure will not work.
– We’ll see who will lose more. I bet this is a big loss for Metal, because there would be 450 million potential users in the (European) region, Naranjo stated.
Will come at some point anyway
However, according to the European consumer organization BEUC, the Digital Services Act is not an appropriate obstacle to a new service, but aims to protect consumers.
Meta has not completely banned the spread of Threads in the European area. So it’s mainly about how the service is able to adapt its privacy protection conditions to comply with European regulations.
– I would believe that this is only a matter of time. The framework of the legislation must be understood and a discussion must be held with the Commission, the European legal expert Alexsande de Streel stated.
This was reported by news agency AFP.