Be Warned: Deleting Your Threads Profile Could Mean Losing Your Instagram Account Too

Threads, the new social media platform by Meta, has been generating a lot of buzz since its recent announcement. Positioned as a more rational alternative to Elon Musk’s Twitter, Threads aims to provide a welcoming and respectful space for conversations. The response has been overwhelming, with a staggering 50 million users signing up within just 24 hours. In contrast, Twitter has been grappling with its own set of challenges, including outages and data scraping issues. As a result, the platform temporarily imposed restrictions on the number of tweets users could view per day. Although some of these limitations have been lifted, many Twitter users are now seeking alternative platforms to express their thoughts.

“Threads is perfectly positioned to gain a large user base because it is based on Instagram, which has over 2 billion users,” said Mishi Choudhary, a technology attorney and Online Civil Rights Activist. However, it seems that even this massive popularity is not enough to keep Threads safe from criticism, as its worryingly long list of required permissions has come under scrutiny. Yes, privacy issues plague Threads and prevent it from being released in Europe.

So if you were confused by the Threads experience and want to disconnect yourself from the app, here’s a warning.

Want to delete your Threads profile?

One privacy concern has flown under the radar – how to delete your Threads account. While signing up for the app is very easy, leaving it is not. Currently, you can sign in to Threads by letting the app sign you in through your Instagram account. However, if in the future you want to leave the platform and delete your Threads profile, you may have to lose your Instagram account as well.

According to Meta’s Supplemental Privacy Policy, users may delete their Threads profile at any time. However, since Threads is part of the Instagram app, deleting it permanently requires them to delete their Instagram account as well. Meta says, “You can deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account.”

But what if you decide to move away from Threads?

Users who want to leave the platform can deactivate their profiles instead of deleting them. While it won’t permanently remove your digital footprints from the platform, it’s currently the only option Meta offers. Disabling a Threads profile will hide threads, likes, and comments until the user logs back into the platform.

Privacy issues surround Threads

Amid problems with Twitter that have forced users to switch to Threads, the app’s permissions list has come under scrutiny. Choudhary emphasized the same, “Twitter’s current turmoil offers Meta a great opportunity to provide an alternative to users. But Meta’s abysmal privacy certainly raises concerns.”

Threads requires 14 permissions, including health and fitness, browsing history, various other sensitive data, and financial data. Threads collects information related to sexual orientation, political and religious beliefs, address and phone number. Due to these problems, the release of the Threads app in the EU bloc has been delayed indefinitely, although Meta says it is working to meet the requirements of the Digital Markets Act of Europe.

Threads isn’t the first app to launch to directly take on Twitter, so it’s uncertain whether it will supplant Twitter as the premier microblogging platform. However, if its rapid rise in popularity is anything to go by, this Musk vs Zuckerberg battle could be one to watch in the future.