New York, 1 December 2023 (dpa/MIA) - The Facebook group Meta is finally planning to launch its short message service Threads in the European Union in December, the Wall Street Journal reported.

There will also be an option to use Threads only to read posts without being able to write your own posts, according to the report, citing informed sources.

The service is an alternative to Elon Musk's online platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Meta did not include the EU when Threads was launched in July, citing legal uncertainties in regard to "new digital laws," likely referring to the dual package of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) - with the automatic linking of user data from Instagram and Threads potentially causing problems for Meta.

Since Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X, the platform's user numbers have been falling, according to market researchers. X is also accused of failing to moderate hate speech and fake news.

Several competitors see an opportunity in X's troubles to build up their own platforms.

Threads is considered a particularly strong candidate because the service is based on Meta's photo and video platform Instagram, which has hundreds of millions of connected users.

Threads has almost 100 million users who are active at least once a month, said Facebook founder and Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in October. After its launch, Threads broke the 100 million sign-ups mark within a few days - but user activity fell soon after.

Zuckerberg remained convinced that Threads could become a service with 1 billion users in a few years.

Photo: MIA archive