Meta launches Twitter competitor this week –CEO

*Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer of Meta, at a recent company-wide meeting, reportedly called the global technology giant’s new social media app ‘our response to Twitter’ 

Gbenga Kayode |  ConsumerConnect

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is set to launch a “text-based conversation app” expected to rival Twitter later this week.

ConsumerConnect reports that a Web site for the new app, which is called Threads, indicated a countdown to morning of Thursday, July 6, 2023, and links to the new platform’s Apple App Store page.

The App Store page reads: “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow.

“Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things – or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.”

Threads is ‘our response to Twitter,’ says Meta’s Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox

Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer at Meta, reportedly described the app “our response to Twitter” at a companywide meeting last month, according to The Verge.

Cox was quoted to have said: “We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution.”

Twitter has undergone a chaotic eight months since billionaire Elon Musk acquired the social media company last fall. Musk has replaced the platform’s traditional verification scheme with a paid subscription service, eliminated certain content moderation rules, temporarily suspended the accounts of several journalists and reinstated the accounts of previously banned individuals, including former President Trump.

Most recently, on Saturday, Musk implemented temporary limits on how many tweets users could view per day. While verified accounts were restricted to viewing 6,000 posts a day, unverified accounts were limited to 600 posts and new unverified accounts were further limited to 300 posts.