A top executive at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said Friday that the goal of the company’s new platform Threads is to create a “less angry place” and not “replace Twitter .”
“The goal is not to replace Twitter,” Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said in a Threads post. “The goal is to create a public square for Instagram communities that have never accepted Twitter and for Twitter communities (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for in conversations, but not all on Twitter.”
Threads is widely described as a direct rival to Twitter, which has undergone several controversial changes since billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk acquired the social media company last fall.
Mosseri also said Friday that while politics and hard news tend to appear on Threads, the platform does not intend to “do anything to encourage” those “verticals,” as a reporter for The Verge suggested which is necessary to compete directly. Twitter.
“Politics and hard news are important, I don’t want to explain otherwise,” argued Mosseri. “But my point is, from a platform’s perspective, any additional engagement or revenue they might drive is not really worth the scrutiny, negative (let’s be honest), or integrity risks that come with them. “
“There are more than enough amazing communities – sports, music, fashion, beauty, entertainment, etc. – to create a lively platform without having to get into politics or hard news,” he added. .
His comments come a day after Twitter threatened Meta with a lawsuit over the new app, claiming Meta had gained access to and misused the company’s trade secrets and intellectual property. The platform also accused them of recruiting its workers to build Threads.
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