Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino isn’t holding back in her response to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Threads has gained over 100 million signups in less than a week. Yaccarino took to Twitter to throw some shade, saying, “Don’t want to leave you hanging by a thread… but Twitter, you really outdid yourselves! Last week we had our largest usage day since February. There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it.”
Yaccarino’s message came after Zuckerberg shared the news about Threads’ milestone, emphasizing that it was achieved without heavy spending on advertising. Zuckerberg posted, “That’s mostly organic demand and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet. Can’t believe it’s only been 5 days.”
While Threads is often seen as a rival to Twitter, Meta’s approach to the micro-blogging platform is different. They are not focusing on topics like politics and hard news. Instagram boss Adam Mosseri explained, “The goal isn’t to replace Twitter. The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter.”
Mosseri clarified that they won’t discourage or down-rank news or politics, but they won’t prioritize those topics as they have in the past. He added, “Politics and hard news are important, I don’t want to imply otherwise. But my take is, from a platform’s perspective, any incremental engagement or revenue they might drive is not at all worth the scrutiny, negativity (let’s be honest), or integrity risks that come along with them.”
Mosseri highlighted that Threads can thrive with other communities like sports, music, fashion, beauty, and entertainment.
