Meta Platforms Inc.’s answer to Twitter is poised to launch, according to a new report, as Elon Musk’s faltering microblogging app struggles to hold onto advertisers and over the weekend placed restrictions on posts viewed by users.
The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday that Meta’s
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Threads will be released Thursday, and is expected to be built off of Instagram user data, giving it the potential to catch on and grow quickly.
Bloomberg News also reported it would launch Thursday, citing a listing on Apple Inc.’s
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App Store.
If Threads does launch Thursday, it could come at a perfect time for Meta to capitalize on anger toward Twitter. Late Monday, Twitter announced it was moving its popular TweetDeck viewing tool behind a paywall in 30 days, spurring widespread user outrage.
Last week, the Threads app briefly appeared on Alphabet Inc.’s
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Google Play Store in some regions.
Threads allows users to port their Instagram username to a new platform that essentially opens direct-message chats on a more public forum. The Facebook parent company has been developing a text-based platform for some time.
Read more: Musk vs. Zuckerberg: Which tech heavyweight is already winning the Wall Street cage match?
Twitter, meanwhile, continues to seek ways to stem hemorrhaging advertising under new Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino as it puts a stranglehold on what subscribers can view. In a tweet Saturday, Musk — who acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October — said verified accounts were at one point limited to reading 6,000 posts a day. For unverified accounts, the number was 600 posts a day, while new account could only see 300. That number was later upgraded to 10,000, 1,000 and 500, respectively.
Animosity between Musk and Meta co-founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has been growing as the Twitter-rival app gets closer to market, culminating in Musk’s cage-fight challenge to Zuckerberg last month.
Mike Murphy contributed to this report.