Meta to launch X competitor Threads in Netherlands, rest of EU this month

Facebook parent Meta plans to launch Threads in the European Union, including the Netherlands, this month, sources told The Wall Street Journal. The social media platform is a direct competitor for Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter.

Threads has been available in most markets worldwide since its launch in July and proved immediately successful. But Meta held off launching in the EU due to the union’s stringent regulations on social media and other online services. According to The Wall Street Journal’s sources, the planned launch in the EU shows that Meta is committed to the micro-blogging platform.

To comply with the EU’s regulations, EU users will be allowed to choose between using Threads for consumption only without a profile or creating a profile to post, the sources said. All Threads users will also soon be able to delete their Threads accounts without having to also delete the linked Instagram account.

The planned launch comes at a good time for many Dutch businesses, who have been pulling advertisements from X over Musk’s association with racist and anti-Semitic posts, as well as X scaling back on its moderation of hate speech. Bol.com, the State Lottery, and VodafoneZiggo are among the businesses no longer advertising on X.

Many Dutch businesses, including KLM, are also no longer offering client services on X. This has created fertile ground for fraudsters, who pose as companies to try and scam personal details out of unsuspecting X users.