On Wednesday, Meta launched its text-based Twitter rival, Threads, which as of Friday had over 70 million subscribed users.  The app is intended to operate as an alternate to Elon Musk's Twitter, which platform has been subject to controversary and concern during recent months.  Seemingly one of Threads' biggest selling points is the ease at which a Thread account can be linked to the user's Instagram page.

As brands begin to navigate their potential use of the Threads app, a few things to keep in mind and consider

:

• Threads is governed both by the Instagram Terms of Use and Community Guidelines, as well as the Meta Privacy Policy. 
  • There are also Threads-specific Terms of Use (found at https://help.instagram.com/769983657850450) and a Supplemental Privacy Policy (found at https://help.instagram.com/515230437301944).
• Threads has not yet launched in the EU due to privacy concerns because the app does not meet GDPR standards. 
• The Threads' Terms state “you shall not … (i) exploit the Threads Service for any commercial purpose.” We believe the intent of this language is to limit commercial content / paid advertising, which would mean that brands could post organic content and engage with consumers, but could not make actual offers in Threads.  
  • We further believe that Instagram originally had a similar prohibition that it later removed, and we wouldn't be surprised if the Threads terms and guidelines are changed many times in the coming weeks and months as the app gets off the ground.  In the meantime, we advise brands to proceed with caution – inviting interaction but no ad-like posts – because it is still unclear how Threads will treat brands on the app.
• At the moment, there is no ability to fully delete a Threads account without also deleting any linked Instagram account - a potential concern if a brand wants to remove itself from Threads, but not lose its Instagram following/content (the head of Instagram has responded to this concern "You can deactivate your Threads account, which hides your Threads profile and content, you can set your profile to private, and you can delete individual threads posts – all without deleting your Instagram account. Threads is powered by Instagram, so right now it’s just one account, but we’re looking into a way to delete your Threads account separately.”)

Overall, we recommend that brands setting up Threads accounts proceed with caution and pay attention to any Threads comments, notices, and updates that may shape and direct brand use of the app.

Happy Threading!