Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has taken a swipe at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's latest product, Threads, based on the Instagram platform but with a focus on text than photos.
Mr Dorsey posted a screenshot of Threads app in his iPhone and alluded to privacy issues. Threads on iOS needs at least 14 permissions to run.
"All the Threads are belong to us," Mr Dorsey tweeted about Meta's rival to Twitter.
More than 10 million people have signed up to Threads within the first few hours of its launch, Mr Zuckerberg said hours after the app went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries. It will run with no ads for now, but its release in Europe has been delayed over data privacy concerns.
Some of the 14 permissions needed to run Threads in iOS include "health and fitness, browsing history, sensitive information, and financial information."
In Google Play, the app store for Android devices, Threads collects data related to "sexual orientation, political or religious beliefs, address and phone number."
Mr Zuckerberg in a Threads post said the app will become bigger than Twitter.
"It'll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion-plus people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn't nailed it. Hopefully we will," the Meta CEO said.
Threads is the biggest challenger yet to Elon Musk-owned Twitter, which has seen a series of potential competitors emerge but not yet replace one of the world's biggest social media platforms, despite its struggles.
Accounts were already active for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and Hugh Jackman, as well as media outlets including The Washington Post and The Economist.
Meta wants to be cautious in the European Union as it is unsure about the requirements under the Digital Markets Act
Mr Zuckerberg also offered a shot across the bow at Mr Musk - the pair are known to be bitter rivals, and have offered to wrestle it out in a cage fight.
Twitter has said it has more than 200 million daily users.
Threads was introduced as a clear spin-off of Instagram, which offers a built-in audience of more than two billion users, sparing the new platform the challenge of starting from scratch.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri told users that Threads was intended to build "an open and friendly platform for conversations."
"The best thing you can do if you want that too is be kind," he said.
Meta wants to be cautious in the European Union as it is unsure about the requirements under the Digital Markets Act - the EU's new competition rules for a significant number of online platforms.
In September, the European Commission will offer more guidance after speaking with businesses like Meta about the regulations. Whether Threads will abide by the EU's strict privacy regulations is not known.
Despite being a standalone app, Threads has drawn criticism for importing personal data from Meta's photo-sharing app Instagram. Earlier, Meta was banned from using Facebook or Instagram data for WhatsApp advertising services.
Meta was fined 377 million euros in January for violating the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by running behavioural ads on Facebook and Instagram.
With inputs from AFP
