They’re not creating a shadow account, you’re literally logging in with your instagram account.
What this post is implying, is that the user numbers are just existing instagram accounts, which doesn’t make sense because in that case they’d have 2 billion users within the first second.
You can follow/request to follow before the user has actually “created” the account, so they’re lying about which users have done that already, not about how many users they actually have.
Why does everything have to be a conspiracy with some people? Threads literally and directly explains that it uses your Instagram account. They’re the same account. Nothing crazy. No magic. No oogie boogie. Just the same account.
They’re doing some dodgy stuff with your data, that’s for sure. But the sign-up is smooth. Instagram has a LOT of users, and Meta is leveraging that and making it super easy to share to IG that you have made said threads account (and if you don’t, they will do it for you). The FOMO is real.
They have taken the biggest challenge to use a new social media platform, rebuilding your spidery web of follows, mutuals, weird interests, and friends, and made it basically transparent. It’s a UX marvel. The sign-up numbers reflect that IMO.
Sharing data of users from one company to another company without their consent is literally what GDPR exists to stop. Instagram is one company. Threads is another company.
If it isn’t oogie boogie then it literally wouldn’t have massive legislation against it preventing it worldwide for eu citizens.
That was the ruling [PDF] from the European Union’s highest court, the Court of Justice, when it upheld a decision by German antitrust regulators that Meta had abused its dominance in social media by milking users for information and swirling it together to serve up ads to users.
If you bypass shit in the EU they slap you with something else and make an example of you.
If you signed up for Valve in the EU for like Left 4 Dead or Half Life or something, it would be against the law for them to share that account with Steam?
Account linking is usually done through a system that you opt into, agreeing to have that link.
This is entirely different, it’s just “fuck it we’ve got all this data, we’ll share it across and use it regardless of consent or not”.
While for other things it’s a completely external registration, for example I have a Steam account but also have to make a completely separate Capcom account for Street Fighter, then link the two together.
The key component is that the end user consents before any data is shared, whereas Meta’s approach is just to do it regardless of consent, treating your private information as something you don’t have a right to control.
it’s true that they have shadow accounts for Instagram accounts cause threads is currently operating under Instagram, I don’t know if that’s factored into their 30 million user count tho
When you follow one of the shadow accounts it says something like “they’ll respond when they join threads” or something
It’s true. As people who I follow on Instagram have started to sign up for Threads it has notified me that we’re following each other. There’s an option when you sign up to allow it to do that. And if you set up a private account, then you still have to approve people who follow you. But this way, you don’t have to worry about remembering to check if someone has signed up yet after you sign up.
I have two Instagram accounts and I created a Threads account on one. Searched for the other and there’s nothing I can find for it. Definitely can’t follow the second account on Threads.
I’m not trying to be a Meta apologist here. I trust them about as far as I can throw a car (especially given the insane amount of data collection mentioned in the App/Play Stores) but in my limited test I don’t see a way to follow an account until you activate it on Threads
I have only an Instagram account, checked just now with a friend who has instagram, Facebook, and now threads. He cannot find me on threads at all, so either this isn’t done to EVERYONE on Instagram, or these are just baseless rumors being spread around.
They did this with Facebook accounts to instagram too. My brother has never downloaded instagram yet he’s my top follow suggestion all the time and it just uses his Facebook profile picture automatically
I think something that a lot of the comments are missing here is the fact that threads, Instagram and Facebook all have been migrated from individual accounts to ‘meta’ accounts. I’m certain that we will see this happen with many platforms unless there is a serious shift in data protection laws. I don’t personally think it’s great that it’s the case but that’s just how it is. The meta platform is quite similar to how google migrated YouTube users to google accounts way back in the day. This monolithic structure ensures that they can keep your user data in a more streamlined database. From a sys admin and a business perspective it makes a lot of sense. From a user who doesn’t care and already uses all of those services perspective it makes a lot of sense. From a privacy conscious user perspective it makes no sense. Then again metas platform is in no way for the user who cares how their data is being handled.
I guess another perspective is talking about interoperability. It kind of feels like they are taking the web3 (I know it’s a loaded term) approach but instead of applying it in a way that allows free development and communication in a way that basically pulls from decentralized/distributed databases you instead get a centralized monolithic model that creates interoperability within their own walled garden.
It’s not really a choice though, is it? They can’t access fb without “choosing” that and for many, Facebook used to be/is the only way some people have to socialize or just contact family members.
They have something that people need. Not kinda want. NEED. They know this and they’re using that leverage to make people agree to things that they never would otherwise. It may technically be legal, but it’s extremely unethical and nowhere near an unencumbered choice.
Do you get it now? If not, that’s too bad. I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.
Not only that, there are parts of the world where FB provides the internet for free and its prohibitively expensive for those people to access the internet otherwise. You can’t realistically say those people have a choice.
That’s not even broaching the topic of whether or not we should give people “the choice”. Generally things that are known to be harmful if used in certain ways aren’t allowed to be sold to the general public. We take away “choice” all the time to protect the average idiot, I don’t see how this is any different.
Especially as in some countries, fb is The Internet for most people. Without a fb account I have no idea about events in my area and miss out on private sales.
I do find it weird how so many people for both claimed their accounts were suspended or banned for not using a real name, when I never gave them my real name and have kept both of those accounts the entire time without issue. Maybe it’s because I don’t actually use Facebook; but I still use a lot of Google’s shit because there isn’t anything better yet.
It’s about email if you make account using email and email name and your name not match you will be ban. If you use your mobile number you will not be ban because they don’t know your real name you will only get banned if someone report you for using fake name
Meanwhile, I got my first ever Facebook ban because someone salty about losing an argument reported me for using a fake name. I was using my real name, which has a Scandinavian letter in it, and had to submit a picture of my fucking passport for fb to unlock my account 🤦
I had my fake account deactivated for using a made up name a few years ago. I was forced to giving it a real fake name instead of a comedy one. Haven’t used it years now so I don’t even know if it’s still working.
i did the reverse. deleted my facebook years ago but holding onto my instagram for now. i hardly use it anymore but it’s nice to keep in contact with old friends, but i’m on the fringe of deleting it
It’d be a luxury for me to delete insta but as a cartoonist that’d be just shooting myself in the foot. That said. I don’t have a FB anymore and only content post to both IG and Reddit these days. I do all my hangin’ here now :)
It’s not creating a “shadow account”, it is literally the same account. Threads is just a different frontend for what already existed with Instagram. And Meta would’ve been stupid, if they wouldn’t have use what they already have.
Oh for sure, but it does make me wonder how accurate the sign up reports are.
Does Threads report people who actually sign up and “claim” their “shadow accounts,” or does it count actual accounts and “shadow accounts?” The former is definitely a more accurate count, while the latter is basically numbers padding.
My understanding, it is reporting people who specifically elect to sign up for Threads using their Instagram account. On instagram profiles, they have been showing a badge with their Threads subscriber number that you only get when you elect to join Threads. This increases sequentially.
The highest number on the badge should give a good indication of how many Instagram users at least “claimed” their Threads account.
In fairness, it’s pretty smart, IMHO: one of the big difficulties in getting a social site started is getting a critical mass of people together to sustain conversation. Facebook already has plenty of Instagram users, so giving them all access to Threads seems like a pretty good way to bootstrap Threads.
ITT: no one who actually went through the sign-up process. It’s like a 3 step process. Eventually you get brought to a screen that asks if you want to follow all of your current followers on Instagram. You can choose yes or no to all the people you currently follow, or you can individually select who you want to follow in Threads the people you follow on Instagram. If you select anyone that has not yet activated their Threads account it literally tells you that nothing will happen for now, but if and when the user activates the account, you will follow them if they are public or it will request to follow them if they are private.
There’s no magic happening here. There’s no shadow accounts…you use the SAME login for Instagram and Threads. They obviously know when you activate your threads account and it will just show the list of users who have already completed the signup and requested to follow you
Now I understand, thanks for explaining. I think it’s just the logical thing to do, it’s just the screen when someone registers on threads and doesn’t mean it creates a shadow account, it’d be more complicated actually
So far Threads has been blocked in the EU because of data privacy concerns. If they don’t show that their code is keeping data stored safely and in the EU it will continue being flagged in all appstores.
What I can’t figure is… who sits down and thinks “fuck Elon Musk and Twitter, I’m sick of this bullshit” and then follows that logic with “you know what I need more of in my life? Fuckin’ FACEBOOK, yeah.”
I think novelty is an unfortunately large part of this. I day unfortunately because I think it’s very lame that we find creating accounts on servers providing the same service as another service we already an account on … interesting.
“We were promised flying cars and instead got 160 characters”. Well now we’ve got 160 characters … twice?!
Meaningless superficial cheap FOMO weaponised as advertising fodder. Shameful really.
They might not be real supporters. They are probably shill accounts forum sliding and doing the same things to control consensus they have done everywhere else.
This is so true. I wish there was a will/way to eliminate bots altogether on a platform. The more popular a platform is, the more bots swarm in to sway the opinions of the crowd - political opinions, consumer opinions, you name it. Reddit was lousy with bots. Constant ceaseless opinion farming. What’s to stop Lemmy from becoming just as obnoxious?
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