“It’s like the Twitter before Musk”: the first days in Europe of Threads, Meta’s response to X

A blank page ready to be scribbled as you wish. For a new social network, the first days are always crucial, even revealing. Especially when it is in direct competition with another web giant. The first steps in Europe for Meta's new platform, Threads, are promising, with 2.6 million users registered over the first three days of launch.

Since its launch on December 14, this “microblogging” social network similar to X (formerly Twitter) is the highest ranked application on the App Store and Google Play in France. Internet users are gradually getting their bearings in this new ecosystem, as if in half-familiar territory.

“It’s like going back to school in a new college and no one knows what to say,” say the very first publications on Threads. In the first days of the European launch, the approximately 440,000 French users were fumbling around, not really knowing how to act, who to talk to or even what to talk about. Little by little, the network is filling up with already well-known web personalities, such as YouTubers and streamers Antoine Daniel and Maxime Biaggi, who easily find their community of subscribers.

And for good reason: the network is directly linked to its big brother Instagram, which alone has more than 2 billion users, including 38.9 million in France. In one click, it is possible to subscribe directly to the Threads account of a person, content creator, celebrity or business that you already follow on Instagram.

The launch of the platform was delayed in order to adapt it to the new European Union regulations on digital markets, the Digital Markets Act. But the timing for Threads is all the better. Its rival X (formerly Twitter) is in turmoil, targeted by a formal EU investigation and victim of a two-hour outage on December 21. An opportunity for Threads to move away from it in spirit, as much as it resembles it in form.

“This is the dynamic of Instagram, while being 100% like people on Instagram. “There is not yet this negative side of X, with the harassment and the hateful messages, the one that made me leave it because I no longer found any interest in it.”

On the launch day, Anaïs Sigoigne joined Meta's new social network to find her subscribers and share her thoughts and her daily life with them more closely. Thus, 1500 of her subscribers have now joined her. “I look at Star Academy, I post on it and only see posts about it in my news feed, it’s practical and it brings people together with the same interests,” she enthuses. And this, thanks to the same algorithm logic as that of its big brother Instagram.

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“Threads is similar to Twitter but more benevolent, it’s the Twitter before Musk,” considers the influencer. And “positivity” is precisely the key word hammered out by Meta’s big heads since the birth of her new little one. Like a label stuck on the forehead, “benevolence” is brandished as a standard to differentiate itself from the negative image of X, marked by heated debates, invectives, but also harassment and gratuitous insults. Added to this is a wave of dismissals of moderation teams since the takeover of the social network by billionaire Elon Musk.

“Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and extend it to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas. Just like on Instagram, with Threads you can follow and connect with friends and creators who share your interests,” explains Meta.

Users do not fail to note the few differences. Alexandre Poirier, 29, is a “former Twitter user, registered on the platform since 2010”. He installed Threads out of “just curiosity, to see what it looked like. And I was not disappointed. No advertising, no frills, it’s clean, simple and it’s nice to start from scratch, find a new community, meet new people.”

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In July, like many others, he downloaded the brand new application, released worldwide, before seeing it blocked ten days later in Europe, to his great regret. He had to say goodbye to this network where he feels “free to talk about anything and everything, compared to Twitter where each tweet can be the subject of a bad buzz”. A freedom allowed by the still immaculate terrain of the platform, which currently only has a little over 100 million monthly users, compared to more than 560 million for X, including 20 million in France.

“I was waiting for the release of Threads with great impatience, to leave X, and I am overwhelmed,” adds Johanna, 23, who has used the platform for two hours a day since its release. “I am delighted with this little nugget which I hope will remain pure as long as possible. Most people are kind, don't ruin it like you rotted Twitter. Since then, Johanna has deserted X, her “favorite social network”, but still does not spare the possibility of returning there if “the users of other network”.

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The micro-blogging platforms Mastodon and Bluesky also benefited from the novelty effect at the time of their release, on a smaller scale. However, the enthusiasm quickly subsided. Same pattern for Threads, which recorded a peak in downloads during its global release, with 100 million registered in five days. The pace then slowed down. This forced the platform to innovate in terms of functionality, with the creation of a web version of Threads, better search tools, or the addition of voice “threads”.

The latter, very popular, already seem to forge the identity of the application, even if the option has also been available on X since last May. Influencers, institutions, media and politicians are gradually heading towards the new promised land as a ground for exchange calmed by Mark Zuckerberg, in the face of the “total freedom of expression” advocated by Elon Musk. In the United States, Threads is currently number one in downloads.