As Meta‘s much-anticipated rivals, Threads launched on July 6 and quickly gained popularity. The app had a great start with over 10 million sign-ups in just seven hours, but it is still uncertain whether it will surpass Twitter in popularity. Users discovered a shocking fact when acclimating to the new platform: It is now possible to delete one Thread account permanently without also delete the Instagram account. Within 24 hours of the app’s launch, users expressed their frustration. Deactivating your Account is the only other option, which we will discuss later in this article.
Elon Musk announced the temporary introduction of “rate limits,” which put a limit on the number of posts users could read. Musk cited “extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation” from AI companies as the reason for the measures, which have increased buzz around the new platform.
twitter users leaving the platform to join meta’s threads pic.twitter.com/NZpE0zuuE2
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) July 3, 2023
The internet’s biggest and most entertaining experiment of the day so far has been Threads’ launch; users are writing on the app to find out how it works, and many have expressed the opinion that users will begin to switch from Twitter to its shiny competitor.
Challenges with Deleting Threads Accounts and Impact on Instagram
However, according to the Threads Supplemental Privacy Policy and a Help Centre page, some other users have stated that after using the app for a few hours and deciding they didn’t like it, they wanted to delete their accounts. However, they discovered that they couldn’t delete Threads without also deleting their Instagram account.
Before signing up for Threads, users must have an Instagram account. When users first download and launch the Threads app, they can the option to import their Instagram followers and bio information.
Users can delete individual posts or temporarily deactivate their accounts, which prevents other users from seeing their posts until they choose to reactivate their accounts, according to a disclaimer in the app’s help center. To erase anything forever, However they must cancel their Instagram account to completely delete the profile and data associated with it.
According to the app’s Supplemental Privacy Policy, “Your Threads profile is part of your Instagram account, and may be deleted at any time by deleting your Instagram account.”
This was confirmed by a Meta spokesperson in an email to Insider, who added that “this is something we’re working on.” Users may deactivate their profiles at any time without it having an impact on their Instagram accounts, according to the statement.
Some users who attempted to delete their Threads accounts turned to Twitter, a competitor, to voice their displeasure with the Meta policy.
“We can’t delete our threads account without deleting our ig?? they knew ppl would instantly hate it so they made it a saw trap,” one user wrote in a tweet that has received 1.1 million views and 25,000 likes.
Other users stated that they feel “trapped” or “stuck” in their Threads accounts, and one user who said she decided to deactivate her account rather than deleting it urged others not to download the program at all.
