Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s new “Twitter killer” app Threads quickly found itself embroiled in a censorship controversy after warning users that Donald Trump Jr. may be a source of misinformation — before the firm quickly backtracked.
Threads users who tried to follow the 45th president’s eldest son were greeted with the message: “Are you sure you want to follow donaldjtrumpjr?”
“This account has repeatedly posted false information that was reviewed by independent fact-checkers or went against our Community Guidelines.”
Don Jr. posted a screenshot of the warning on rival Twitter on Thursday and called out the Instagram and Facebook boss.
“Threads not exactly off to a great start,” he wrote.
“Hey Instagram, threads is verbal, so the whole skimpy bikini thing is not going to work so well if your influencers can’t actually formulate a sentence… IMHO you may want to rethink cutting off those who can.”
In response to Don Jr.’s tweet, Andy Stone, who heads communications for Meta, wrote: “This was an error and shouldn’t have happened. It’s been fixed.”
The warning label was then removed.
Don Jr. replied: “Ok thanks I appreciate that.”
The Post has sought comment from Meta.
The social media giant had banned Donald Trump from Instagram and Facebook for two years following the Jan. 6 riots.
Skeptics weren’t buying Stone’s claim that this was an innocent mistake.
“Isn’t it odd how errors always target conservatives???” one Twitter user wrote.
Another commenter wrote: “Yeah but it did happen and we know where Zuckerberg’s loyalties lie.”
Several other high-profile conservatives on social media said that their posts were being censored by Threads.
They thus pledged their loyalty to Twitter, which was acquired by Zuckerberg foe Elon Musk for the express purpose of allowing nearly unfettered speech.
“Facebook’s Threads is already censoring conservative voices on its platform, asking users if they’re sure they want to follow conservatives because of ‘disinformation,’” tweeted conservative commentator Darren Grimes. “We must keep the blue bird of freedom alive. @elonmusk.”
“Imagine leaving Twitter, the most free speech platform on the internet — owned and operated by one of the greatest free speech advocates of our time — to move to Threads, an app that is already engaging in the Censorship of Conservatives on day one,” conservative commentator Benny Johnson tweeted.
Another right-leaning social media known as “DC_Draino” tweeted: “Just downloaded and signed up for the new Meta app ‘Threads’ meant to imitate Twitter.”
“I posted once about wanting to expose Biden’s corrupt government and they’ve already flagged me for censorship…Great platform Zuck.”
Threads has drawn 50 millions users since launching Wednesday and is facing a potential legal fight with Musk.
In a letter Wednesday to Zuckerberg, Alex Spiro, an attorney representing Twitter, threatened to sue Meta and accused the firm of unlawfully using Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property by hiring former Twitter employees to create a “copycat” app.