Meta Is Building A Rival To Twitter 

Meta has shown staff plans for a text-based social network designed to compete with Twitter. With an ambitious list of target users, including the Dalai Lama and Oprah Winfrey, the proposed text-based network could allow users to follow accounts they already follow on Instagram, as well as potentially bring over followers from platforms such as Mastodon.

The standalone app is codenamed Project92 although its public name might be Threads The new standalone App will be based on Instagram and integrate with ActivityPub, the decentralised social media protocol. 

Meta's chief product officer Chris Cox has confirmed that the platform was in development and that coding was under way on the platform. Although no release date was given, there is some speculation that it could be as early as the end of June. Meta says it takes "inspiration" from other products, although others have noted that Stories on Facebook was based on a Snapchat feature, and Reels on Instagram is unmistakably similar to TikTok.

Screenshots have appeared online which were shown internally to employees, potentially giving an idea of what the app will look like. 

Threads / P92 - could turn out to be a greater rival to Elon Musk's Twitter than either BlueSky or Mastodon. While both have attracted users disillusioned with Twitter, starting afresh on a new social network and rebuilding a user  community, is difficult.

If even 25% of Instagram users can be coaxed into using Threads / P92 it will instantly become bigger than its older rival.

Twitter has come under scrutiny months over security on the platform, and in May it withdrew from the EU’s voluntary disinformation code. Under Elon Musk's ownership, Twitter moderation has been reported to have fallen too far and critics say the platform has allowed an increase in the spread of disinformation.

In response, Elon Musk says there is now "less misinformation rather than more" since he took over in October 2022.

As an advertising-reliant business, Twitter has been experiencing problems, including an advertiser boycott triggered by concerns over the deterioration of moderation standards at the platform and a poorly executed relaunch of Twitter’s subscription service, which led to controversy over of verified impersonator accounts. Twitter’s ad revenues in the first week of May were 59% down on the same period last year, reflecting concerns about the platform.

A fresh start on a new social network and rebuilding a community to compete with Twitter would be a challenge, but the Instagram community is enormous -  Meta says it has around two billion users - which is much more than the 300 million that are believed to use Twitter.

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