Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey publicly criticise Mark Zuckerberg's Threads app

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk are mocking Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter-like app over privacy concerns. After floating around the rumour mill for a while, Instagram's new text app dubbed Threads has made its highly-anticipated debut.

The microblogging app from Meta is available for download on Google Play Store for Android users and the App Store for iOS users. However, it is worth noting that the app is available only on the App Store for iPhone. For now, you can't download and install Threads on other Apple devices like iPads.

Twitter owner Elon Musk and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey started attacking Threads ahead of the app's arrival. Notably, Twitter itself has undergone a radical overhaul in the last few days. For instance, Musk recently announced temporary daily limits on the number of tweets users can read.

On top of that, Twitter announced that only verified users will have access to TweetDeck in the future. As expected, the social media giant is facing backlash from frustrated Twitter users.

In fact, some netizens believe the end is near for Twitter. Meanwhile, some users are still trying to figure out why Musk restricted access to Twitter.

Meta launches Twitter-rival, Threads

While Twitter continues to catch flak for the slew of changes, Meta unveiled Threads on July 6. Twitter's co-founder Dorsey took to Twitter to take a subtle jibe at Zuckerberg's Meta over user data collection. Twitter's former CEO shared a screenshot of the data that Threads will be collecting from users,

"All your threads belong to us," Dorsey wrote. Musk took to the comments section of this tweet and wrote "Yeah." Zuckerberg responded by sharing a screenshot of the data Twitter uses to track its users. "FYI.... Twitter is not much better," the top executive wrote.

Meta has been making headlines for data collection concerns for quite some time. According to a report by The Brussels Times, Zuckerberg's technology company recently lost an EU lawsuit over data collection in Germany.

Bluesky: Dorsey's Twitter competitor

Dorsey has invested in Bluesky, which could turn out to be just another Twitter competitor that resembles Musk's microblogging site. Over the weekend, Bluesky experienced record-high traffic after Musk announced temporary read limits for users. As a result, Bluesky temporarily paused sign-ups.

Dorsey decided to create Bluesky back in 2019 when he was still the CEO of Twitter. He built an entire team for the platform that Jay Graber would lead. The company was formed in 2021. Bluesky became a public benefit company in 2022, cutting off all ties with Twitter.

Everything we know about Threads so far

According to an India Today report, Threads has been under development since January. It was initially codenamed Project 92. Ahead of the app's launch, rumours about a cage match between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg began making the rounds online.

During a meeting, a Meta executive reportedly said that they have "been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution."

Musk responded to this report on Twitter, stating he is up for a "cage match" with Mark Zuckerberg. The 39-year-old Facebook co-founder asked Musk to "send location." Unsurprisingly, this triggered banter between two tech giants.

Now, it will be interesting to see if Musk or Dorsey will continue mocking Threads after Zuckerberg's reply. Instagram currently has over 2.35 billion monthly active users, according to a DemandSage report. So, Threads is likely to gain popularity among netizens considering it is Instagram's text-based conversation app.

Furthermore, the App Store describes Threads social app as a platform where "communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what'll be trending tomorrow." Apparently, the app will allow users to follow and connect directly with their favourite creators, or build a loyal following of their own.

Moreover, users will be able to share their ideas, and opinions, and showcase their creativity. While this is similar to Twitter, Threads has a different billionaire at the helm.