No Instagram Threads app in the EU: Irish DPC says Meta's new Twitter rival won't be launched here

It has been released in the US and the UK this morning, as an alternative to Twitter.

A spokesperson for Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) said that the regulator had been in contact about the new service and that it would not be rolled out in the EU “at this point”.

However, it is understood that the DPC has not actively blocked the service. Instead, the tech giant has not yet prepared the service for a European launch outside the UK, which is not fully governed by GDPR or EU privacy rules.

Sources close to Meta said that the tech giant has refrained from rolling the service out in the EU because of what the company believes is a lack of clarity contained in the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Under the Act, companies such as Meta become “gatekeepers”, with restrictions on how they mingle users’ personal data.

The new Threads platform is designed to import data from Instagram, including behavioural and advertising information.

In its US format, the platform tells users that it will collect a wide variety of data from users, including health, financial information, browsing histories, location, purchases, contacts, search history and sensitive information.

In the EU, Meta has been prevented from launching advertising services on Whatsapp that uses data from Facebook or Instagram. The tech giant is allowed to mingle the two data streams in the US, which has weaker privacy laws.

It is unclear when, or if, Meta will launch Threads in Ireland and the EU. A spokesperson for Meta was unavailable to comment on the matter.

Twitter threatens Meta with legal action over its new Threads platform

The new Meta platform comes after a week of disruption and policy changes for Twitter.

Elon Musk’s company announced that it would begin limiting the number of tweets that all users could read, due to alleged data-scraping practices from unnamed services.

Twitter also announced that TweetDeck is to become the next part of the company to be limited to users who have paid for verified status.

The application, which allows users to manage multiple feeds and searches, will only be accessible to verified users in 30 days, according to a tweet from Twitter Support on Monday evening.