12-7-2023 (PARIS) Meta, the company led by US tech mogul Mark Zuckerberg, has chosen to withhold its new Threads app from European customers due to “regulatory uncertainty” surrounding the Digital Markets Act (DMA), an antitrust regulation which will not come into force until next year. The DMA prohibits large tech companies from favouring their own platforms, which is problematic for Threads as it is linked to Instagram accounts.
The DMA also bans firms from transferring user data across platforms without consent. Berin Szoka, president of the US think tank TechFreedom, said this could prove fatal to Threads’ rollout, as the network effect would be dead on arrival. While Meta has left the door open to a Threads launch in Europe, experts say the company is using the embargo as a “political push” against the EU, but may struggle to win the fight.
Despite adding more than 100 million users in its first week in app stores, the European Consumer Group (BEUC) has said the Threads issue shows the DMA working exactly as it is supposed to. The DMA creates an environment for innovation from more competitors and protects consumers, according to the group’s competition specialist Vanessa Turner.
Diego Naranjo, head of policy at campaign group European Digital Rights, believes that Meta will give Threads to the rest of the world and Europeans will become so vexed at missing out that they will pressure the EU to water down the DMA. However, Naranjo thinks the ploy will fail, and that Meta will lose more from not having 450 million potential customers on their network.
