Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge
Last week, Meta debuted its Twitter competitor, Threads. The app gained more than 100 million users in the US, UK, and hundreds of other countries in less than a week — but you won’t be able to download it in the European Union anytime soon. The app has been held up by what Meta spokesperson Christine Pai described to The Verge as “upcoming regulatory uncertainty,” widely assumed to refer to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Tech companies and regulatory skeptics have long claimed that laws like the DMA hold back innovation by requiring onerous user protections, but the looming competition law doesn’t stop Meta from introducing new products — and Meta hasn’t indicated it will forgo a European launch. If anything, the DMA adds friction…