Millions of people immediately downloaded the new Threads app when it launched on Thursday, but users have already discovered a significant bug in the most recent version.
Due to its features that are comparable to those of Twitter, Meta’s new app, which can only be set up by people who already have an Instagram account, has already earned the moniker “Twitter-killer.”
There was a lot of anticipation before the app’s release, especially in light of recent modifications to the Twitter user interface following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the service.
On July 6, when the network became live, millions of people hurried to register their own accounts. However, some users quickly discovered that there was no way to remove their Threads account without simultaneously deleting their Instagram account.
After Musk announced the temporary implementation of “rate limits,” capping the number of tweets a user may read based on whether they were verified or unverified and how recently they’d created their account, many decided to try out the new platform.
It was stated that “extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation” by AI businesses was the cause of the cap.
According to Threads’ owner Mark Zuckerberg, 10 million people joined up for the service in just seven hours. Some of these users attempted to quit the platform as quickly as possible and erase their account, but were unsuccessful in doing so.
A user’s Instagram account will likewise be erased if they choose to remove their Threads account, according to the Supplemental Privacy Policy and a Help Centre page.
Users must already have an Instagram account in order to sign up for Threads, and after doing so, they can import their bio information and followers from that page.
Users can delete specific posts or temporarily deactivate their accounts to hide their posts from other users until they reactivate them, according to the Help Centre.
Insider also quotes a Supplemental Privacy Policy that reads, “Your Threads profile is part of your Instagram account, and may be deleted at any time by deleting your Instagram account.”
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, responded to users’ queries by confirming: “I’ve been getting some enquiries regarding deactivating your account.
“To clarify, you can deactivate your Threads account, which hides your Threads profile and content, you can set your profile to private, and you can delete individual threads posts – all without deleting your Instagram account.
“Threads is powered by Instagram, so right now it’s just one account, but we’re looking into a way to delete your Threads account separately.”
Some users took to Twitter to share their shock at being “trapped” with the app, writing: “The men trapped us. If you delete this, you also delete Instagram.”
Others added: “why is the threads app telling me that if i wanna delete my thread account I HAVE TO DELETE MY ENTIRE INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT!?”, and: “The fact you can’t delete threads once you get it (without deleting IG all together) is enough to never make me get it. Have fun y’all.”
One even joked: “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”
For the time being, waiting it out until the update comes out allowing you to do just that – or deactivating it in the interim – seems to be the best course of action if you want to delete Threads without losing your Instagram account.
