It didn’t even take 24 hours for us to find the “buts” to Threads, Meta’s new social network. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, it’s about the social platform that aims to replace Twitter:
“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics that interest you today to what will be trending tomorrow. Whatever interests you, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things, or create loyal followers to share your ideas, opinions, and creativity with the world.”
In other words, Twitter 2.0 When Threads was announced, Meta pitched it as a new Instagram platform, and therein lies the crux of the matter. In the first seven hours, Meta boasted 10 million subscriptions, i.e., the data of 10 million people is now on a new Meta platform.
And therein lies the key: accessing Threads requires an Instagram account and deleting a Threads account requires deleting the linked Instagram account.
Threads privacy clauses state: “You can always delete posts. To delete your Threads profile data, you will need to delete your Instagram account.”
Wait… what? This means that if you open a Threads account and for some reason no longer want to keep your account, you can’t delete your profile unless you delete your Instagram account.
The reason, Meta explains on the policy page, is that a Threads profile is part of a user’s Instagram account. The discovery of this stipulation has surprised many users.
After receiving feedback from users about this policy decision, Instagram’s Adam Mosseri clarified how the account deletion would work.
He says users can deactivate their Threads account to hide their profile and content, they can set their profile to private, or they can delete all of their individual Threads posts without deleting their Instagram account.
However, so far, Threads and Instagram are one account, so deleting one would delete the other. Mosseri adds that the company is “looking for a way to delete your Threads account separately.
This story was written in Spanish by Cora Bravo in Cultura Colectiva
