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

Facebook owner Meta’s Threads app arrived in the EU on Thursday, months after its global launch in July, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

The text-based app is a spin-off of the Instagram photo app and is intended to be a rival to X, formerly known as Twitter, after that platform turned away many users and advertisers after Elon Musk’s purchase last year.

Today we are opening Threads to more countries in Europe. Welcome everyone, Zuckerberg said on Threads.

Threads went live in 100 countries earlier this year but not in the European Union. Meta officials cited regulatory clarity as the reason for delaying the social network’s arrival in Europe.

Meta has repeatedly come under the EU’s regulatory scrutiny, particularly over concerns about how it uses people’s data to serve highly targeted advertising.

The EU has strengthened its legal power to rein in Big Tech, with stricter rules to safeguard European users online and to boost competition in an industry dominated by US giants.

Over 100 million people had joined Threads within a week of its launch that excluded the European Union.

Meta said that now European Union users can create a Threads profile connected to their Instagram account, but they can also use the app without a profile to browse, share and even report content, as part of the firm’s compliance with EU rules.

They cannot, nevertheless, interact with Threads content nor post without an Instagram sign-on.

Instagram has around two billion users around the world.

Threads said it had introduced new features since its launch including a “Following Feed”, the ability to edit a post, search with keywords and tag topics.