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Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

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Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#12

Reading this didn't surprise me a bit. Actually it makes sense from a user lock-in/enshittification perspective. It just bolsters the fact that I'm not install threads, ever.

I get the feeling that this is a skunkworks project for Meta. The fact that it's completely blocked in the European Union suggests that either they're doing something really bad (worse than Facebook), or they don't have the resources allocated to this project for their lawyers to greenlight it. And it just being a product built on top of the Instagram database would also fit in with that idea.

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#13
post #3

So, if the accounts are linked closely to each other, and an Instagram account is a necessity for a Threads "account", are those really "signups" or more like... logins into another view of the same service? These numbers seem overblown.

Yeah like Zuck said your Instagram followers are already there - so the question is: if you gain a follower on threads, is it also a new follower on Instagram?

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#15
post #2

People jumping ship from Twitter for this thinking they're going to be treated any better are probably in line for a nasty surprise.

[flagged]

Yeah zuckyboy is totally a better dude than the muskrat

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#16
Meta will nuke your Instagram account for basically anything, including for no reason at all.

I have like 50 followers, 10 photos, and check my IG once every week or two - haven't posted anything in months.

Meta has banned me twice for unspecified policy violations (both times I had to send them a selfie and got reinstated, and there was no way to ask a human what these policies were).

I suspect they'll ban/unban me again someday, oh well, it's Meta and I don't care, I just make sure not to use them for anything essential...!

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#17
post #3

So, if the accounts are linked closely to each other, and an Instagram account is a necessity for a Threads "account", are those really "signups" or more like... logins into another view of the same service? These numbers seem overblown.

Yeah like Zuck said your Instagram followers are already there - so the question is: if you gain a follower on threads, is it also a new follower on Instagram?

AFAIK, no. Your Instagram followers also aren't already there, FWIW: when you first log in it asks if you want to follow some or all of the same people you follow on Instagram; if you follow someone who isn't on Threads yet it becomes a "Pending" follow and will automatically follow them once they join. I am pretty sure the follow lists are then disjoint.

(There actually seems to be a bug in this whole scheme btw wherein there is a window during the onboarding where your account is Private and if people follow you during that moment they become Requested follows you have to Confirm even if your account is immediately public and is swarmed with hundred of followers. I thankfully noticed and dug out this stragglers.)

The users and accounts are definitely otherwise the same, though: you can't even AFAIK sign up in the Threads app... you can only log in using an existing Instagram account that is already logged in on that same device, which seems to just use shared keychain access to the login tokens from the other app. I had an old version of Instagram installed and realized I couldn't even log in to Threads until I upgraded it.

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#18
its clear Meta are trying quite hard to piggyback Threads off the more palatable brand of Instagram rather than Facebook. However ultimately it's all still the same company, the same data mining and ad/influencing platform.

It's an interesting strategy, the app on the Apple App Store is published by "Instagram Inc" rather than Meta, prominently named as "Threads, an Instagram App". They could have launched it as a completely separate brand, but that would have required marketing such as "the new app from Meta", and everyone more closely associates Meta with Facebook.

It's quite surprising they never launched a microblogging network before, but I suppose they have never really launched a new network, only ever acquired them... does that show that they feel threatened, have weakening market position, and need a new direction?

Re: Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting Instagram account, Meta says

#19

its clear Meta are trying quite hard to piggyback Threads off the more palatable brand of Instagram rather than Facebook. However ultimately it's all still the same company, the same data mining and ad/influencing platform. It's an interesting strategy, the app on the Apple App Store is published by "Instagram Inc" rather than Meta, prominently named as "Threads, an Instagram App". They could have launched it as a co…

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