Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp's mother company, Meta, launched Threads, a micro-blogging application designed to rival Twitter, on July 6.

The platform is limiting verified accounts to reading 10,000 tweets a day. Non-verified users -- the free accounts that make up the majority of users -- are limited to reading 1,000 tweets per day. New unverified accounts would be limited to 500 tweets.

The app went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at 2300 GMT. 

Accounts were already active for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, and Hugh Jackman, in addition to media outlets, most notably The Washington Post, Reuters, and The Economist. 

"Let's do this. Welcome to Threads," wrote Meta chief executive and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in his first post on the new platform, which will run with no ads in the meantime.

Zuckerberg fired a shot across the bow at Musk; the two are well-known to be fierce rivals and have even proposed meeting in a cage to wrestle it out.

"It'll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn't nailed it. Hopefully, we will," Zuckerberg said. Shortly thereafter, he wrote: "Just passed 5 million sign-ups in the first four hours.

Zuckerberg also took the chance to tweet for the first time in 11 years from his Twitter account.

pic.twitter.com/MbMxUWiQgp

— Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd) July 6, 2023

A clear spin-off of Instagram

Threads was introduced as a clear spin-off of Instagram, which offers a built-in audience of more than two billion users, thereby sparing the new platform the challenge of starting from scratch.

Zuckerberg is seemingly taking advantage of Musk's chaotic ownership of Twitter to push out the new product, which Meta aspires will become the go-to communication channel for celebrities, companies, and politicians.

Under Musk, Twitter's content moderation has been drastically scaled back, with malfunctions and hasty choices driving away big-name personalities and advertisers.

The Tesla billionaire said last week that he was restricting access to Twitter in order to stop businesses from "scraping" the site in order to develop their AI. Then, Musk infuriated Twitter's most ardent devotees by announcing that access to its TweetDeck tool, which enables users to view a rapid stream of tweets at once, would only be available to paying clients.

Facebook scandals overshadow Threads

Despite Instagram's enormous user base, Threads owner Meta also has a legion of critics, many of whom are based in Europe. As a result, the growth of the platform may be slowed.

The company formerly known as Facebook is denounced mainly for its handling of personal data -- the essential ingredient for targeted ads that help it rake in billions of dollars in profits every quarter. 

A source familiar with the situation claims that Meta was leery of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a recent law that imposes stringent limitations on the world's "gatekeeper" internet corporations.

One guideline prohibits platforms from sharing user information across different products, which might apply in the instance of a connection between Threads and Instagram.

Meta was caught out for doing just that after it took control of t the messaging app WhatsApp, and European regulators may be more vigilant in the future to make sure that the company doesn't do so illegally with Threads.