The app, which requires an Instagram account for signup, has seen a rapid influx of users since its launch, boasting of 10 million users in about seven hours. However, the platform’s unique account deletion policy has raised eyebrows among its user base.
In a ‘Supplemental Privacy Policy,’ Facebook explains, “You may deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account.” The company further elaborates that a Threads profile is part of the user’s Instagram account, hence the linked deletion policy.
The discovery of this stipulation has surprised many users. One user, Emily Hughes, took to Twitter to express her surprise, saying, “I deactivated my threads account already but it turns out you can’t delete your threads account without also deleting your Instagram account so maybe just don’t sign up!”