Threads, which Meta will stop its use in Turkey on 29 April, has been closed to access as of today. Why was Threads closed?

Meta's social media platform Threads, a rival to Twitter, was closed to access in Turkey today. The Competition Authority had requested to stop the data sharing between the Threads platform and the Instagram platform and issued a temporary injunction. Threads had announced that it would stop its services in Turkey on 29 April due to the Competition Authority's decision. As of today, the Threads platform has been closed to access.

According to the statement made by Threads, Threads was closed to access in Turkey as of today due to the decision of the Competition Authority. Users' profiles have been disabled. Users will be able to download their profile information at any time or delete their profile at any time. Threads continues to communicate with the Competition Authority and hopes to return soon.

Why was Threads shut down?

The data of users who create a Threads profile through Instagram is merged and data is shared between the platforms. The Competition Authority concluded that Threads caused unfair competition due to cross-platform data sharing. 

The Competition Authority emphasised that Meta has extensive and detailed data accumulation due to its long years of activity in the market, and that Meta services have become attractive to advertisers due to the size and diversity of users. It was stated that META's activities constitute an entry barrier in the market, as they enable META to allocate more resources for service development and make it difficult for competitors to access advertisers and thus financial resources. In addition, it was assessed that META operates as an ecosystem with the basic services and related services it offers, which makes it possible for META to transfer the power and accumulation gained from each service to another service and increases its market power. It was also assessed that since the data was merged without providing users with the option of consent, it could cause irreparable damages.