Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / Getty
Threads, Meta’s almost-unabashed Twitter clone, has achieved in two days what countless other alternatives have failed: widespread adoption among celebrities, brands, and news organizations alike.
Of those who’ve joined have been scores of journalists who previously made names for themselves on Twitter and perhaps fall under all three categories. While Twitter-aping revivals including Bluesky, Mastodon, Post News, Hive Social, Substack Notes have sputtered out of relevance, Threads has garnered an astonishing 48 million sign-ups within 24 hours, according to The Verge. Its rise has even prompted Twitter to send a cease-and-desist letter to the company, arguing Threads is predicated on Twitter’s trade secrets.
But the rise of yet another social platform vying for users disaffected by the Elon Musk version of Twitter has forced those in media who spent the past decade cultivating their own, sometimes massive followings on the now-crumbling platform to try and rebuild those audiences from scratch. It’s a tall ask—even as Threads allows users to migrate their Instagram following—leading some prominent journalists who’ve joined Threads to wonder whether it’s worth it at all.