Elon Musk’s dig at Instagram after the launch of Threads

Elon Musk took a dig at Instagram after the launch of Threads

Elon Musk took a dig at Instagram shortly after the Meta-owned app launched Threads, a text-based conversation app designed as a direct rival to his Twitter.

“It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram,” wrote Musk. The Twitter owner was responding to a tweet quoting a 2018 email he sent to his advisor Juleanna Glover, informing her that he had deleted Instagram.

It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram

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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023

Twitter has gone through a series of changes, many of them unwelcome, since Musk took over the company last year. The unpopular changes have turned off not just users but also advertisers.

Instagram’s new offering, called Threads, is billed as a text-based version of the photo-sharing app that the company says provides “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.”

Users get a Twitter-like microblogging experience, according to screenshots provided to media. There are buttons to like, repost, reply to or quote a “thread,” and counters showing the number of likes and replies that a post has received.

Musk’s dig at Instagram after the launch of Threads hit at a sore point – the photo-sharing app has been criticised for encouraging ‘fake happiness’ on social media, a phenomenon where users post only pictures that make them look perfect and problem-free. Experts have said this distorted view of reality, sans any indication of real-life issues, can lead to worsening mental health in young adults.

Threads went live just after midnight Wednesday in the U.K. in Apple and Google Android app stores in more than 100 countries including the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan. Early celebrity users include chef Gordon Ramsay, the pop star Shakira and Mark Hoyle, better known as the YouTuber LadBaby.

(With inputs from the Associated Press)