May 29, 2024 07:00:00

Meta's social networking site Threads has become popular in Taiwan and has become a platform for protests against the pro-China opposition party.

Meta's short message posting SNS ' Threads ', which was

launched in July 2023 , spread at a rapid pace, becoming the fastest in the world with 150 million downloads, but one month after launch, it struggled to maintain its user base. However, in Taiwan, it has become a very popular SNS, with almost 1 in 12 people using it.

Who actually uses Instagram's Threads app? Taiwanese protesters - Rest of World
https://restofworld.org/2024/instagram-threads-app-taiwan-protests/

Threads was released on July 6, 2023, and the next day the number of registered users

exceeded 30 million . It took just six days to reach 150 million downloads, far surpassing Pokémon GO's record of 33 days.

'Threads', a popular alternative to Twitter, already has one-fifth the number of weekly active users of Twitter - GIGAZINE

If this momentum had continued, it would have been a threat to other social networking sites, but one month later, it was reported that the number of daily active users had fallen from a peak of 44 million to 8 million.

Threads users have fallen 82% since the beginning to 8 million, and the average daily visit time has plummeted from 19 minutes to 3 minutes - GIGAZINE

However, this does not mean that Threads is finished, as it remains popular especially among young people in Taiwan.

According to

data compiled by data.ai , the most recent number of active users from May 12 to 18, 2024 was 8.93 million in the United States, 3.3 million in Japan, 2.6 million in Brazil, and 1.97 million in Taiwan. In terms of the percentage of users to the total population, the United States is 2.7%, Japan is 2.7%, Brazil is 1.2%, while Taiwan has a noticeable number of users at 8.4%.

Taiwan will hold a presidential election in January 2024, and Lai Ching-te, a member of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), an independence supporter, will be elected. However, the Chinese government claims Taiwan as its territory and has shown a willingness to use force, so the opposition Kuomintang and Taiwan People's Party, which are pro-China, are calling for a bill to strengthen the power of the parliament.

The DPP has a small majority in parliament, and young DPP supporters who believe the bill would undermine the president's power and Taiwan's democracy have flocked to Threads to organize and hold protests, reports news site The Rest of World.

X (formerly Twitter) has never been the mainstream social networking site in Taiwan, and during the 2014 social movement ' Sunflower Student Movement ,' communication was carried out through a combination of Facebook, YouTube live streaming, and local forums. After 10 years, it was recognized that 'the platform at that time was outdated and too conservative,' and Threads was used instead. In particular, it is said that the advantage is that there is less interference from older internet users and advertisements.

However, Meta does not encourage political content, and has announced that from February 2024, it will use its recommendation algorithms to restrict political content on Instagram and Threads.

Update on Political Content on Instagram and Threads
https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/continuing-our-approach-to-political-content-on-instagram-and-threads

For this reason, some users are exchanging contact information on LINE and Telegram to prepare an alternative location in case political content is suspended on Threads. 'What worries me is that our side (DPP supporters) is so dependent on Threads. After all, Threads is also a commercial platform run by notorious people,' one user who spoke to The Rest of World said.