Meta unspools Threads

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

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In early December, when word first leaked out that Meta was considering new ways to challenge Twitter, I messaged Adam Mosseri.

We were then two months into Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter, and it was clear that the social network I depended on the most was beginning to break. For my own sake, it felt important that something like Twitter continue to exist — a place to share news, jokes, and other short snippets of writing, in a chatty public place that gave me a sense of the daily conversation.

And so I told Mosseri that I hoped Meta would go through with it.

On one hand, the history of Facebook and...

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