Mark Zuckerberg claims Threads will succeed by being more “friendly” than Twitter

Alice Sjöberg
mark zuckerberg

As Meta’s new Twitter competitor Threads recently has finally been released, Mark Zuckerberg has now revealed his opinion as to why he thinks Twitter failed – people on there are just too mean.

Meta’s new Twitter rival, Threads, launched on Wednesday, 5 July, and managed to get over 30 million sign-ups in less than 24 hours.

Similar to its main competitor, Threads offers a ‘for you page’-style of content, where users are able to post text, images, and video content. Users are able to like, comment, repost, or quote on other users’ content. 

As more and more people have found their way to the app, Mark Zuckerberg took the opportunity to answer users’ questions about the app, which included what he wanted Threads to become in the future.

Taking to the new social media platform, Mark Cuban asked Zuckerberg: “Hey @zuck, you sure you have to open this up to everyone? It’s pretty nice right now. Amazing people on here.”

Zuckerburg replied: “The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands. I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success. That’s one reason Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently.”

Twitter users have mixed responses about Zuckerberg’s plan

A screenshot of the message was screenshotted and shared on Twitter by petergyang, who also wrote: “Zuck thinks Twitter never succeeded because people on here are too mean.”

In response, one person wrote: “He’s right. This app is a cesspool of bros.”

Another said: “He’s not wrong. I can vouch for what he said.”

“Uhh, yeah, the people here are terrible,” a third said.

However, some were also skeptical if Zuckerberg’s vision of the app would succeed and were quick to call it “censorship”.

“Censorship incoming… I’m all for friendly, but enforcing friendliness is gonna be a rough experience…” one said.

“The biggest issue is that people have confused disagreeing with something someone says as unkindness,” a second person argued.

A third person argued that Twitter’s harsher tone is because the app was created for discussion. They argued: “They are different media. FB is to connect to friends and will be friendly. Twitter is a public space and THE dominating platform for public debate and thus will have a harsher tone.”

Check out our guides on Threads

What is the Threads app? Instagram’s Twitter competitor explainedDoes Threads work on desktop? Web app explained | How to find Threads badge on Instagram | How to get verified on Threads | How to enable dark mode for Instagram Threads on Android and iOS | Does deleting Threads account delete your Instagram too? | How to download Threads

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About The Author

Alice is the Entertainment Evergreen Specialist at Dexerto, whose expertise include social media, internet culture, and Reality TV. She is a NCTJ qualified journalist that previously worked in local news before moving on to entertainment news with OK! Magazine and a wide variety of other publications. You can contact Alice at alice.sjoberg@dexerto.com