Meta will delete your Instagram account if you delete the Threads profile

Threads, Meta’s Twitter rival, is attracting users at a staggering rate, amassing 10 million sign-ups in just seven hours, according to co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. But the highly anticipated new service, which requires an Instagram account for integration, has an intriguing stipulation: deleting a Threads account terminates the linked Instagram account.

In an “Additional Privacy Policy”, Meta explains, “You can deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account.”

The rationale, Meta explains on the policy page, is that a Threads profile is part of the user’s Instagram account. The discovery of this stipulation surprised many users.

Threads, a text-based chat app, is the premier alternative to Twitter, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.

Instagram, the popular photo-sharing platform with more than 2 billion users, rolled out Threads on Wednesday to users in more than 100 countries. The app, the latest in a series of fast-growing Twitter rivals, seems to be the most desirable yet.

Zuckerberg said Thursday that the app had attracted 10 million signups in just seven hours, sharing an emoji that suggested his mind had been blown by the reception. The pace at 10 million makes Threads the fastest growing consumer offering.

A number of brands, including Netflix, Amazon, NFL, Pepsi, have also cast their vote of confidence in Threads by signing up for the app. However, many big names – Google, Apple, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Disney – remain mysteriously absent, at least at press time.