According to co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Threads, Meta’s competitor and home to 10 million sign-ups in just seven hours, is attracting users at an amazing rate. However, the eagerly anticipated new service has an unusual restriction: Deleting a Threads account necessitates deactivating the associated Instagram account.
Meta clarifies in a Supplemental Privacy Policy: “You may deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account.”
The justification is that a Threads profile is a component of the user’s Instagram account, as explained by Meta on the policy page. Many consumers were shocked to learn about this requirement.
I deactivated my threads account already but it turns out you can’t delete your threads account without also deleting your Instagram account so maybe just don’t sign up!
— emily hughes ✨ (@emilyhughes) July 6, 2023
The well-known substitute for Twitter, owned by Elon Musk, is the text-based chat program called Threads.
On Wednesday, Threads was made available to users in more than 100 countries on Instagram, the well-known photo-sharing app with more than 2 billion users. The app, the most recent in a line of Twitter rivals that are quickly taking up, seems to be the most popular so far.
Zuckerberg described his goals for the new program in a Threads post: “I think there should be a public talks app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the chance to do this, but hasn’t quite succeeded. I think we will.
Early on Thursday, Zuckerberg said that the app had drawn 10 million sign-ups in just seven hours, using an emoji to express his amazement at the response. Threads is the fastest-growing consumer offering as of the pace to 10 million.
A number of companies have shown their support for Threads by registering for the app, including Netflix, Amazon, NFL, and Pepsi. At least as of the time of publication, numerous well-known companies, including Google, Apple, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Disney, were inexplicably absent.
Updating as of July 6, 2:22 ET: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri detailed the account termination process following user reaction regarding this policy move. Users can switch their profile to private, deactivate their Threads account to hide their content and profile, or delete all of their individual thread postings without also deleting their Instagram account, according to him. However, since Threads and Instagram are currently combined into one account, removing one also deleted the other. According to Mosseri, the business is “looking into a way to delete your Threads account separately.”
