Who is surprised?
This is stupid. If you “follow” someone who is on Instagram but isn’t on Threads, it automatically follows them when/if they sign up for Threads. It even tells you this on the page.
How does it know you exist? Because it suggests you follow everyone you are already following on Instagram. It is using your Instagram account, there is no standalone Threads account. This isn’t rocket science.
When they say the numbers, they are talking about the number of Instagram users that have also signed up for Threads. For a while it when put a badge on your Instagram profile with what sign up number you were.
I’m not surprised because Meta said they were doing just that. Anyone who had an account on Instagram automatically has an account reserved for them on Threads. I don’t see anything nefarious about it.
i am begging fedi users to understand that threads and instagram use the same account
At this point it’s just willful ignorance.
No, it’s just that users don’t like systems where you have to opt out by default. Like you used to have to opt out of shitty marketing emails after a purchase, but then we changed that to opt in and everyone is happier.
I guess it’s a god thing you have to opt in to Threads, huh?
There’s plenty of things to hate Meta for, but this is inaccurate.
You log into Threads with your Instagram account. There’s no “shadow account”, you’re logging into a second service with the same account and credentials.
I agree that the wording is inaccurate, but some of the essence remains: the second “service” is forced on you. It’s somewhat as if anyone with a Fakebook account also automatically had a Whatsapp or Instagram account, or some permutation of this.
It’s not forced on you. If you don’t download Threads and log in, you’re not on threads.
This is akin to saying Google Calendar is “forced” on you if you have a Gmail account. They are separate services that use a common credential, you are under no obligation to use any or all of those services.
Nah its more like having Telegram prompt me “Jay is on Telegram, say Hi to Jay” when he hasn’t created an account or joined. Currently Telegram only shows those who actively joined. This is the point of the post.
Threads only shows users who have signed in to Threads. If you mention an Instagram user in a Threads post that has not signed in to Threads prior, the mention is removed because it’s not a valid handle.
I urge you to read through the link in the original post to the Mastodon user who originally made this claim, where you’ll find plenty of people more eloquent than me explaining why this is inaccurate.
It’s not forced on you. If you don’t download Threads and log in, you’re not on threads.
Although that’s technically true, it is clear what Meta is doing here (and even if most may know that the company sucks, I personally feel it is important report on things like that). Meta’s tactics should create a hype making people believe there are substantially more users than there actually are. The mass of people won’t recognize (or even care?) what’s going on I’m afraid.
What is Meta doing here? I’m not clear on what the point being made is.
If you’re insinuating that they are doing this to artificially inflate user counts, why wouldn’t they be reporting about how there are 2+ billion threads users in the first week?
They don’t need to manufacture hype - like Meta or not, in the first 96 hours they brought in almost 100 million users. Thats a third of Twitter’s entire active user base, in less than a week.
It seems we agree to disagree. The point I make is pretty clear, and it doesn’t make sense if you repeating your arvuments over and over again.
But the point you’re making isn’t clear which is why I asked if you could clarify - what is the point you’re making?
@0x815@feddit.de seems pretty clear to me buddy. I’m not sure what you aren’t getting.
Okay, but that still means their user count is fake.
Instagram has over a billion users.
Their user count is the number of Instagram users that have activated threads.
If you follow someone who hasn’t, it will automatically follow them if they do activate. That doesn’t mean they created some shadow profile.
