THREADS, THE TEXT-BASED social media app launched in July by Facebook owner Meta, has finally arrived in Europe.

Threads is a spin-off of the Instagram photo app and is intended to be a rival to X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Today we’re opening Threads to more countries in Europe. Welcome everyone,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Threads.

Threads launched in July and had ten million sign-ups in the first few hours, mostly due to its close proximity to Instagram.

This offered the new app a built-in audience of more than two billion users, thereby sparing the new platform the challenge of starting from scratch.

However, its release in Europe was delayed over data privacy concerns.

Speaking upon the launch in July, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said he regretted that the EU launch was delayed.

Meta has numerous critics with the EU due to its handling of personal data – the essential ingredient for targeted ads that help it rake in billions of dollars in profits every quarter.

According to a source close to the matter, Meta was wary of a new EU law called the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets strict rules for the world’s “gatekeeper” internet companies.

One rule restricts platforms from transferring personal data between products, as would potentially be the case between Threads and Instagram.

Meta was previously caught out for doing just that after it bought the messaging app WhatsApp, and European regulators will be on high alert to ensure the company doesn’t do so illegally with Threads.

Threads is the biggest challenger yet to Elon Musk-owned X, and Musk threatened to sue Meta just hours after Threads launched in July.

In a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro accused the company of “unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property”.

The letter accused Meta of hiring dozens of former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information”.