Yes, we say it”ThreadsDeck“now.
At least that’s the label many are using to describe the new user interface for Instagram’s X competitor, Threads, which resembles the column-based format of Twitter’s old TweetDeck app (now X Pro). Two weeks after first testing functionality that lets Threads users pin columns to the desktop web app’s home screen, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri was announced on Thursday that this alternative view had begun to spread globally — just as everyone would be discussing the hottest political news of the year: Trump verdict.
The new user interface option positions Threads as a more serious rival to X for those seeking real-time news and information, as it allows users to counter Meta’s ill-advised decision to distance itself from political discussions on Instagram’s platforms. In February, the company announced that both Instagram and Threads would no longer “proactively” recommend political content — an odd choice for a would-be Twitter/X competitor in an election year.
It’s not hard to see why the company came to this decision. Meta has repeatedly been dragged into political controversy, particularly in the US where it has been accused by Republicans of censorship of free speech and by Democrats of excessive behavior misinformation and disinformation. By entering the real-time social networking space and positioning Threads as an alternative public forum for Elon Musk’s X, Meta soon caught the attention of House Judiciary Speaker Jim Jordan (R-OH) last year.
When Threads was only a few weeks old, Jordan wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with questions about the app’s content moderation policies. Here we go againprobably thought Meta.
Instead of dealing with the headache, Threads turned its back on politics. The company said it won’t proactively insert political content into Threads’ In-Feed Suggestions or recommend it across Instagram.
However, even though Threads wanted to avoid the policy in favor of creator content, its users did not.
Even after the policy change, political content regularly dominated Threads trends. When President Biden gave his State of the Union address in March, for example, the terms mentioned in the speech itself, the bickering and Republican response was trending. Today, the network is abuzz with conversations related to the Trump verdict, as you’d expect on any real-time social platform.
Easier to follow news in real time
With the previous Threads user interface, tracking different topics, threads, and discussions was much more difficult — and crucially, it wasn’t real-time. Moving between the For You and Following feeds required you to click back and forth. There was no easy way to monitor an area of interest continuously. That changes with Threads’ alternative column-based layout, which users have affectionately dubbed “ThreadsDeck.”
You can now pin your For You and Following feeds side-by-side, as well as Likes, Saved, Profile, Activity, or a search feed that highlights top trends. Most importantly, you can search for any topic you want to track – for example “Trump” – and add it as a separate column as well.
Additionally, any column outside of the For You feed can be toggled to allow automatic updates, like TweetDeck. Even better, it’s not a subscriber-only feature like X Pro.
This change goes a long way toward making Threads look, feel, and work more like Twitter/X, regardless of Meta’s corporate ban on political content.
The ban is confusing to users, who don’t understand how Meta will decide what content to block. Wouldn’t a photo of Taylor Swift be recommended if she’s holding “Biden-Harris” cookies? one user recently wondered when you publish a test of the algorithm.
Mosseri tried to clarify that the company’s work around policy happens “primarily at the account level, not at the post level.” He too tried to explain again that Threads was not “anti-news“? just wouldn’t “enhance political news”.
“Sports, music, fashion, culture news is something we actively pursue. The topic is political news [we] we are looking to be more careful” he said in a reply.
Every time he mentions this, user responses flood the thread, expressing their disagreement with Meta’s position.
Some of these shots were more varied than others.
“There’s just no way a viable real-time social media platform can get away without being part news platform.” reprehensible technology journalist Lance Ulanov. “Lean into it and figure out how to support it in a way that avoids the mistakes of everyone else in your wake.”
Another simply shouted“GIVE US NEWS!”
At least now users no longer have to wait for Meta to change its mind — they can customize the app to meet their requirements for real-time, automatically updated information on a variety of topics, including politics.
If Threads succeeds in replacing X as a news platform, it will be in spite of its flawed policies on political content, not because of them. And because it finally gave users the tools – through “ThreadsDeck” – to build the app they wanted for themselves.
