Instagram app being called a “Twitter Killer” after release of new app

Threads vs. Twitter

By Chris Stein

(CBS) - Last month Twitter Owner Elon Musk used one of his tweets to challenge Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg: “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.” Musk wrote. Zuckerberg responded with four words: “Send me the location.” That fight hasn’t come to fruition but the virtual one appears to be escalating.

INSTAGRAM THREADS

Meta owns Instagram and that company is releasing a new app called “Threads”, that looks a whole lot like Twitter. "It will be strategically, intentionally, unashamedly similar to Twitter," says Social Media Consultant Matt Navarra.

Some are calling "Threads" a "Twitter killer." "Threads" is billed as a text-based conversation app.

Instagram users can link their accounts to the news app and follow the same people.

"Instagram has 2 billion users compared to around 250 million of Twitter. So, if only one in ten Instagram users tries using threads, it's overtaken Twitter in the blink of an eye., says Social Media Commentator Drew Benvie.

A NEW PROBLEM

This is just the latest challenge for Twitter CEO Elon Musk. There's already competition from BlueSky Social, a new app launched by Twitter's inventor and former CEO Jack Dorsey.

Musk is also facing backlash for his recent decision to limit the number of tweets users can see.

“Since Elon Musk took over, the system itself isn't working as well as it should. Just over the weekend we saw Twitter go down and there are limits put in place for users so that it doesn't break the servers again," Benvie said.

Musk said some of his moves are an attempt to stop unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data. He also commented recently on a screenshot from of the Instagram Threads privacy section in the App Store showing what personal information might be collected.

We’ll see if those issues keep Instagram users from downloading the new app.