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LONDON — Move over Twitter: Westminster’s finest have a new way to hand over their personal data and break their brains.
Just hours after launching on Thursday, Threads — the Twitter rival from Facebook and Instagram owner Meta — is already home to a host of prominent British political tweeters seeking sanctuary from Elon Musk’s troubled platform.
And, with the app remaining off-limits in the European Union amid competition concerns, there was plenty of room for gloating about a supposed Brexit dividend.
Quick out of the traps to sign up Thursday were social media-savvy Tory MPs including Energy Secretary Grant Shapps, Leveling-Up Minister Dehennna Davison and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.
Shapps, an early adopter of Twitter back in 2008, said Threads’ launch reminded him “of when I was the first MP on Twitter. At the time few thought it would amount to much. Let’s see what we’re saying about Threads in 14 years time!”
Labour frontbenchers Wes Streeting and Alison McGovern swiftly joined the fray — while top legislation-explainers at the Institute for Government and Tory grassroots bible ConservativeHome also opted to make the leap.
Westminster journalists appeared to embrace the new app, too, with prominent reporters from the BBC, Sky, ITV and a host of national newspapers signing up.
Not everyone was instantly won over. In one flash of drama, Paul Waugh — a doyen of the Westminster reporting lobby who helped popularize Twitter among political hacks — claimed he had been “instantly suspended” while trying to sign up through sister service Instagram.
Waugh — who later nabbed a new handle — pointed out that some in the SW1 bubble might struggle with Threads’ lack of a desktop version. The i newspaper’s chief political commentator threaded (?): “I mean I like my phone but boy is it easier to post from a desktop.”
ITV News U.K. editor Paul Brand dived straight into sharing stories on the platform, but was also among those urging Threads to make it easier to import people to follow from rival services and suggested the platform needs a direct message function.
But, despite some grumbling, British political tweeters of a Eurosceptic leaning had one thing to crow about: the fact the EU is currently missing out on the action.
Meta is holding back on launching Threads in the European Union “because of upcoming regulatory uncertainty,” a spokesperson told POLITICO Thursday, amid a host of EU tech laws meant to stop tech firms hoovering up data, users and services.
Christian Calgie, senior political correspondent at the Daily Express, was quick to take a jibe, posting a picture of Brexiteer pin-up Nigel Farage with the message: “EU citizens aren’t currently on Threads because of nanny state security rules banning it across the continent. Another great Brexit victory for Britain.”
Clothilde Goujard contributed reporting.
