• by Colin Kirkland , December 1, 2023

While Elon Musk continues to drive advertisers away from X, Meta's copycat social-messaging platform is making moves to expand across the EU.

The X-alternative app should become available to millions of European users some time this month.

Threads-- which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said had reached 100 million users last month -- has not been available in the EU because of emerging privacy regulations put forth by the region’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to protect user privacy and prevent tech giants from engaging in monopolistic behavior.

In January, the Irish Data Protection Commission fined Meta over $400 million for its use of user data on Facebook and Instagram. That was followed in May by an unparalleled $1.3 billion penalty for Meta's transferring of EU users’ data to the U.S.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Meta has figured out a way to comply with budding regulations while vastly expanding Threads' reach.

“To comply with [EU] regulations, Meta will give EU users the choice of using Threads purely for consumption without a profile that allows them to make their own posts,” the Journal writes.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri also said recently that Threads users across the globe will now be able to delete their Threads accounts without also having to delete their Instagram accounts as well, addressing a major concern over a potential social-media monopoly.

Going live in the EU could attract as many as 40 million additional monthly users for Threads over the next year, notes the Journal.

But in terms of user base, the boost would still put Threads behind X, which has about 365 million monthly active users, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.

However, X is facing a severe loss of advertising dollars due to the platform's inability to protect brands' ads from appearing next to harmful and hateful content, as well as Musk's unpredictable and offensive antics.