It’s been five months since Meta introduced Threads, a platform the Instagram team developed to compete directly with X (Twitter). Since then, the social network has reached nearly 100 countries, but None from the European Union (EU). This is because the Mark Zuckerberg-led company decided not to launch its new flagship product on the block due to issues with privacy legislation.

According to The Wall Street Journal, this scenario is about to change. Sources close to the project told the American newspaper that the social media giant will officially launch Threads in the EU in December. There’s no exact date for this upcoming expansion, but if it happens, the microblogging social network that Elon Musk bought for $44 billion in October last year will have some serious competition.

Meta wants Threads to reach the EU

What is beyond doubt is that Meta wants Threads to be available in EU member states as well. The company itself has been a part of this in the past “incredibly important” market and stated that they expect their new social network to be available at some point in the future. However, apparently fulfilling these requests was not that easy for the company, which has lost Threads’ presence in the region for months.

As we said, the main obstacle for Zuckerberg to bring Threads to the blog is the increasingly stringent regulations of the digital world, in particular the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets certain guidelines on the collection and exchange of data. Let us recall, the connection between the tech company and regulatory authorities was shaped by various discussions regarding the protection of user privacy.

Before going any further, Meta was fined €1.2 billion in May for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The company was also hit by the ban on its display. Personalized ads on Facebook and InstagramThis is something the company is trying to address with the paid version of social networks. Apparently Meta wanted to avoid further controversy with Threads and therefore delayed the launch in the EU.

Despite all this, the American company would already have a ready-made version of Threads perfectly adapted to work according to EU regulations. There aren’t many details about the apparent changes, but the WSJ notes that users will be able to use the service as content consumers, meaning without a profile that allows them to share. We’ll have to see how this mechanic is implemented.

Let’s remember that Threads is a social network closely connected to Instagram. Users who enter do this via Instagram account, you keep your original user and the link between profiles. At the time of launch, the platform did not allow you to delete a Threads account linked to your Instagram account. If you no longer wanted to use the service, the option was to use or delete both accounts. Fortunately, this has now changed.

We will soon find out whether Threads will indeed reach EU soil in December and whether this will have an impact on X (Twitter). The number of users of the Meta social network has surpassed 100 million and it is believed that its arrival on the old continent could mean 40 million more users. X has about 365 million users, according to Sensor Tower, but has been flooded by advertisers due to controversial comments from owner Elon Musk.

Images: Meta/Instagram

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