Meta’s “Threads” app will launch tomorrow in the US and UK, but it may not come to the rest of Europe “at this point,” according to a spokesperson.
Twitter’s rival app will not be available in the EU, as Meta has “not yet prepared the service for a European launch outside the UK, which is not fully governed by GDPR or EU privacy rules,” according to the report.
The EU recently hit Meta with a ruling that it must obtain consent from users before delivering personalized ads in the region.
The tech giant was previously fined €390 million (about $425 million) for not receiving consent before serving up such ads.
Meanwhile, Threads is arriving amidst issues with Twitter like “rate limits” on tweets and degraded service for the power-user app Tweetdeck.
Many of Twitter’s active users were seeking an alternative with apps like Bluesky and Mastodon, but some see Threads as the most viable option due to Meta’s scale.
This comes in spite of any reservations they may have about CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s track record on privacy and other issues.