Meta's Threads upends social media in less than 48 hours

In less than 48 hours, Meta's Twitter rival Threads has surpassed 70 million sign-ups, upended the social media landscape and appears to have rattled Twitter enough that it is now threatening legal action against Meta.

But even as users signed up for Threads in droves, with some clearly eager to flee the chaos of Elon Musk's Twitter, the sudden success of Meta's app could raise a new set of concerns.

Meta has long been criticized for its market dominance, and for allegedly trying to choke off competition by copying and killing rival applications. Now, some competition experts and even some Threads users worry that if the new app's traction continues, it may simply lead to the accumulation of even more power and dominance for Meta and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"The prospect of total monopoly by Meta, yikes," wrote one user. "It's a real problem for society when a few dozen people and companies own every single thing so that no alternative paradigms can exist that they don't co-opt from the cradle," replied another.

Twitter had always been much smaller than Meta's platforms, but it had an outsized influence in tech, media and politics. As Twitter faltered under Musk, though, a cottage industry emerged of smaller apps trying to capture some of its magic. Now more than any of them, Meta seems best positioned to claim the crown.

Threads' blockbuster launch this week highlights the uncomfortable reality of the modern digital economy: To potentially beat some of the biggest players in the industry, you might have to be a giant yourself.

The overnight success of Threads is a testament both to the dissatisfaction with Musk's ownership of Twitter and to the unique power and reach of one of Meta's most important properties: Instagram.