Meta's rival to Elon Musk's X launches in EU

Great news for Threads fans in the EU – you can now finally use the new social media app.

It's been a while coming, with Threads first launching to a handful of countries, including the US and the UK, back in July.

The Meta app, which is basically Mark Zuckerberg’s rival to Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) is linked to your Instagram profile and means you can share text updates or join public conversations, just like on X.

It’s not known why people in the EU couldn’t join the app before, but some think it might have been linked to European Union laws around data usage by big tech companies, and to curb their market dominance.

But EU users can now sign up to Threads using their Instagram account – or just use the app without a profile, which will limit their ability to post and interact with other accounts.

Without a profile, you can browse the content posted on Threads, but you won’t be able to comment and interact with other people’s posts.

In a statement, Meta said: “Since launching Threads in July, we’ve made significant improvements to the app, including a web experience, a Following Feed, the ability to edit a post, search with keywords, tag topics, and more.

“We’re excited to give more people the opportunity to follow and join the conversations they care about.

“Starting today, people in the EU can choose to create a Threads profile that is connected to their Instagram account – which means they get the same experience as everyone else around the world – or use Threads without a profile."

In July, a Meta spokesperson told tech news outlet The Verge that the delay was due to “upcoming regulatory uncertainty” which people think could be the EU’s new Digital Markets Act that came into effect in August.

The option to use Threads without a profile seems to be Meta’s answer to satisfy the European regulators’ concerns around the app’s close links with Instagram.

It's good news for anyone in the EU who was keen to hop onto Threads, but we're not going to lie - the real announcement we were waiting for was about the cage match between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Sadly there's still no word on whether that will actually happen, but here's hoping.

Zuckerberg wrote a particularly thrilling message on Threads about the change, saying: “Today we’re opening Threads to more countries in the Europe. Welcome everyone.”

If that doesn’t make you want to join, we don’t know what will!