Twitter has been the dominant face of microblogging platforms since its launch in 2006, but technical problems, a troubled takeover, and management changes have seen users lose faith in the platform.
Threads—a competitor from Meta—gained more than 100 million users in less than a week after its launch, making it a realistic challenger in the battle for short-form preeminence. But here’s why you should steer clear of the Threads bandwagon.
1. Threads Depends on Instagram (and Vice Versa)
If you’ve managed to avoid installing Instagram on your phone thus far, it’s probably a deliberate choice.
If you’re one of the many people who love Instagram, and you decide to try out Threads then decide it isn’t for you, you’ll find itisn’t currently possible to delete your Threads account without deleting your beloved Instagram, too.
2. Threads Is a Privacy Nightmare
Through the Threads app, Meta collects a lot of unnecessary data about you and your device—far beyond the text and images you choose to share with your friends in the app.
Realistically, a microblogging app shouldn’t need to collect a huge amount of information. It should be able to get by with access to your keyboard, so you may type; your contacts, so you can hook up with friends; your camera if you want to directly upload photographs; and local files should you want to share an image from your gallery.
According to the ThreadsData Safety Pageon Google Play, Threads may collect information on your web browsing history, other installed apps, your health and fitness details, financial information, and device IDs.
The personal information it collects also includes political or religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and more.
3. Meta Has a Poor Record of Handling User Data
Meta’s reputation for keeping your data safe and private is sketchy at best, and the company is regularly forced to pay massive fines for its breaches.
Notable among these was theCambridge Analytica scandal, with theFederal Trade Commissionimposing a record-breaking $5-billion fine on the company in 2019.
The settlement was imposed partly because Facebook violated the terms of a previous 2012 settlement that prohibited the company from “making misrepresentations about the privacy or security of consumers’ personal information, and the extent to which it shares personal information, such as names and dates of birth, with third parties,” as well as maintaining a “reasonable privacy program that safeguards the privacy and confidentiality of user information”.
More recently, in November 2022, Meta was fined €265-million by Ireland’sData Protection Commissionrelated to GDPR infringements. According to theBBC, Meta is currently contesting a further €1.2 billion ($1.32 billion) fine from Ireland’s DPC for mishandling user data.
In July 2023,Reutersreported that Meta lost a challenge at the European Court of Justice to a German Federal Cartel Office ruling that would make it more difficult for the company to combine data from all the services it runs.
While it would take a much longer article to detail all of Meta’s privacy breaches, associated fines, settlements, and legal challenges, it’s prudent to recall that the company’s founder was quoted inThe Registeras referring to early Facebook adopters as “dumb f*cks” for trusting Facebook with emails, pictures, addresses, and social networks.
4. Threads May Never Be Truly Global
Meta hasn’t had an easy relationship with the European Union, and when Threads launched around the world on 05 July 2025, users in the EU were unable to use it.
This was a deliberate decision by Meta, and although the company has yet to state its reasons, is thought to be largely based on uncertainty around the bloc’sDigital Markets Act. This regulation aims to prevent large companies from abusing their market power and became broadly applicable in May 2023.
Another possible reason is concern over processing the data of EU citizens and the continual fines to which Meta is subjected for privacy breaches.
So its ability to be truly global relies on whether it can comply with EU regulations.
There Are Alternatives to Threads Out There
If you don’t like Twitter, but have concerns about your privacy when using Threads, and want to use a social network with a global reach, there is a plethora of alternative platforms out there.
The Fediverse, in particular, is an interconnected network of federated servers, which isn’t out to make money from your personal data.
