Source: Ming Pao

Author: can it be completed

Last week, Threads, a new social media product, was officially released, attracting many eyes.In just 5 days, it has obtained 100 million users' registration and refreshed the fastest record ever in history -the previous record holder is ChatGPT, which uses two months to reach 100 million users.

Threads is a text social app similar to Twitter, and its number of users is approaching Twitter quickly.In July last year, Twitter's number of users released was 240 million.Elon Musk later acquired the main acquisition and has not released numbers to the public, but people generally speculate that the number of users has declined significantly in the past year.

The success of

Threads starts, showing that people are still enthusiastic about public dialogue relying on words, but it can't help people worry about it.

People who long for health discussion

Threads gets the results of breaking 100 million users in 5 days, which is largely obtained with the help of existing users -it is launched by Instagram, a subsidiary of Meta (Facebook's parent), and has an Instagram account.It can easily create a Threads account and import itself on the list of user lists that you already pay attention to on Instagram.

However, it is not always successful to launch new products with its own existing users.In 2011, Google tried to challenge Facebook in the field of social media, launching social product Google+, and binding with Gmail's huge users.However, this product finally failed.

This shows that users are not passive characters that technology companies can drive and command at will.When they flood to a product on a large scale, there must be an important reason that they really want to use it.

So, what is the reason for THREADS users to download using this new product?Simply put, I hope to get a healthier public dialogue space.The literal significance of the name "Threads" is close to the "one line" and "needle -piercing lead", and it is extended into a "series of discussion".Therefore, it can be understood as a "weaving discussion" platform.

Originally, many people were weaving discussions on Twitter; but after Musk acquired Twitter, Musk took a laissez -faire attitude on the content on the platform and cut off the department responsible for content security.This makes false information, conspiracy theories, discrimination comments, hatred remarks, and junk advertisements on Twitter, making many users feel "toxic".

In contrast, THREADS will take a more positive attitude towards these contents.Therefore, the first sentence sent by the famous American lesbian host Ellen Degeneres after entering Threads is "Welcom to Gay Twitter! (Welcome to Twitter of Gay)"It has become a platform that is very hostile to homosexuality. Users believe that Threads will actively govern and terror.

In addition to finding a balanced point between freedom of speech and discussion rules, the social media platform must also make a series of infrastructure preparations: for example, to add "V" certification to users with real identities and a certain credibility, adding a certain credibility,Identity instead of using the "V" certification as a product to sell it.Musk's Twitter officially added "V" into a toll service, which filled the user's timeline to add certified advertising and marketing numbers. A large number of users who really have the quality of speeches have become a "V" without "V".exist.

Therefore, the initial success of Threads is attributed to "Twitter for a long time in the world."

The shadow of the monopoly of the giant

Although the new public dialogue space provided by Threads is exciting, there is also hidden concerns under excitement: open and instant discussion products with short texts as the core, which is an area that the giant Meta has not been occupied -it already has Facebook, it already has Facebook, it already has Facebook,There are Instagram, as well as WhatsApp and Messenger.If Threads defeats Twitter, Meta's monopoly position in the Internet's social field will be further strengthened, making people can't escape the palm of the company.

As a company with advertising as the main source of income, Meta has strong impulse to obtain more user data and even personal privacy to push more personalized customized advertisements.The "Cambridge Analytica" scandal that happened a few years ago has revealed that Meta's inferiority in infringement of user privacy.Once Threads becomes our daily app, then Meta's company will definitely know more and more accurate.

In addition, Threads may also be another platform with the main purpose of devouring users' attention and consuming a lot of use time.To this end, it may enlarge the entertainment and addictive content, but it will not bring special achievements to the constructed public domain.

Many people have found that Instagram has become more like Tiktok in the past year, more addictive, which also reflects the anxiety of Meta's company under short video challenge.Will this anxiety make the Threads product more and more deformed, and more and more pursuing the stimulus of attention, rather than the quality of discussion?This is a real concern.

In the final analysis, if people download Threads because they hate Twitter, then we are just choosing the "more bad" one in the two bad options, which is not a progress.

Can the balance between commercial interests and user rights be balanced?

However, the new platform of Threads still promises new changes in addition to the old path of attention economy.

At the time of release, Meta official said that Threads will support an agreement called "ActivityPub" in the future.This is a revolutionary decision for the platform of the Internet giant.

Why do you say that?Because supporting the ActivityPub protocol is equal to Threads will become a decentralized product, adding the so -called "FEPERSE".The word consists of "Federation" and "Universe". It refers to federal relations between different platforms. Although there are their own specific products and tools, the information can be interconnected, users can freemigrate.

This is like an email system. Whether your email provider is Gmail or Outlook, they can communicate with each other.In addition, in the federal universe, you can become the owner of your own data. You can bring your own user's attention to the relationship and migrate to another platform.Essence

If the products we are familiar with have joined the federal universe, then our daily use will be a completely different scene: you can directly receive the information published by an account on a certain account on WhatsApp; if you are tired of Twitter, then thenYou can export the followers accumulated above and transfer to Instagram.

Therefore, the federal universe has given users more rights and freedom, and has also formed more restrictions on the platform.Earlier, after the "Cambridge Analysis" scandal broke out, many people said that they would withdraw from Facebook.K, but this boycott plan is basically failed, because most people can't give up the social relationship that we have accumulated on Facebook, and we cannot export friends on Facebook to other platforms.If Threads really supports ActivityPub, assuming that one day Threads has caused a lot of dissatisfaction, people can easily migrate their data with fans to another tool that also supports ActivityPub to successfully resist.

Earlier, the most well -known federal universe social platform is "Mastodon".But its user experience is not good, so it has not been used in a wide range.Jack Dorsey, former Twitter CEO (CEO), is also developing another federal universe, named Bluesky.However, their movements are relatively slow. At present, they are still in the internal testing stage. The invitation code needs to be used.Threads will become a new, potential federal universe products.

The challenge of "Federal Universe"

Of course, the federal universe brings not only exciting revolutionary changes, but also practical challenges.For example, content review and security issues will become more complicated because of the federal universe.It is not easy to review the content on the Threads's own server. When Threads and many other APP servers are connected to the people and information Unicom, then Threads requires a set of mechanisms to determine whether to filter some information of those servers and whether they need to be completely "shielded" (shielded "(shielded" (shielded ") A server ... This involves a series of mechanism design and manpower investment.

But in any case, in the context of the old "Walled Garden" model that has dominated the social media platform for more than ten years, a new product said that it will try the "Federal Universe" model, or it will be given to moreHealthy public discussion space has brought new hope.

The author is an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong