Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is picking a fight with Elon Musk, unveiling a Big Tech alternative to Twitter called Threads that relies upon Instagram’s infrastructure.
Mr. Zuckerberg said Thursday that 30 million people signed up for his new app, which debuted in Apple and Google’s app stores on Wednesday and heavily resembles Twitter’s text-heavy conversational style.
As Meta opened the gates of Threads for Instagram users to migrate over, billionaire businessman Mark Cuban asked Mr. Zuckerberg on Threads if he really wanted to open the platform to everyone.
“The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands,” Mr. Zuckerberg replied. “I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success. That’s one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently.”
The Facebook co-founder has appeared less collegial on Twitter and in his public eagerness for a brawl with Mr. Musk.
Mr. Zuckerberg removed any doubt that he was imitating Twitter by publishing an image of identical cartoon-Spiderman characters pointing at one another. The impish meme published as Threads’ ranks grew on Wednesday evening is the only post visible on Mr. Zuckerberg’s Twitter account in more than 10 years.
Mr. Musk trashed Mr. Zuckerberg’s Instagram as a dwelling for fakers and phonies in a Wednesday evening post to Twitter.
“It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram,” Mr. Musk said.
A lawyer for Twitter wrote to Mr. Zuckerberg on Wednesday threatening potential legal action over concerns that Meta may have unlawfully used Twitter‘s intellectual property, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Semafor. Meta spokesman Andy Stone responded on Threads in a post saying no one on Threads’ engineering team was a former Twitter employee.
Twitter has experienced some growing pains since Mr. Musk took over the platform last year. Mr. Musk announced rate limits on July 1, which restricted the number of posts people on Twitter may view in hopes of removing spam and inauthentic accounts.
The caps on the number of Twitter posts visible to paying and unpaying users drove people to alternative platforms and other sources of real-time information.
Twitter’s self-imposed speed limit on scrollers provided an opening for Instagram’s alternative. Early glimpses of Meta’s new platform spread online in May, and the app quickly went live this week amid the Twitter turmoil.
Threads’ opening in more than 100 countries attracted celebrity users, such as pop singer Shakira, and major brands such as Netflix. The new app’s launch did not blast off without a few glitches, as some people experienced difficulty loading Mr. Zuckerberg’s posts.
The challenges facing Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Musk’s microblogging platforms appear far from over.
Twitter’s sudden rate limits appear to be winding down, as the company published an update on Tuesday saying its restrictions affect a “small percentage” of people and it would update users when work was complete.
Mr. Zuckerberg’s new Threads will likely face scrutiny for how the app handles people’s data. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey posted a screenshot on Twitter of the lengthy list of data collected by Mr. Zuckerberg’s new app that is disclosed in Apple’s app store.
“All your Threads are belong to us,” Mr. Dorsey said, captioning the data collection.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
