July 7, 2023
SINGAPORE – Have you joined Meta’s new app Threads, the one touted as the “Twitter killer”?
If you have not, here are some famous Singaporeans who have beaten you to it:
Politicians
A number of politicians have flocked to Threads since the app was launched on Thursday morning.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is one of the early adopters, although his account remains private.
Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has shared a selfie, saying “Hello Threads!” He has at least 4,100 followers as at Thursday evening.
Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister of State for Social and Family Development and Home Affairs Sun Xueling, Member of Parliament Desmond Choo and presidential hopeful George Goh have also jumped on the bandwagon.
Entertainers
Besides DPM Wong, actor Lawrence Wong, who rose to fame with his role in Chinese drama Story Of Yanxi Palace, can also be found on Threads.
Mediacorp actors Richie Koh and Chantalle Ng have joined the platform, so have funnymen such as mrbrown and Kumar.
Leading the pack in terms of follower count is JJ Lin. The Mandopop superstar already has more than 48,000 followers as at Thursday evening.
Some ministries and organisations have also claimed their spots on Threads, including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, Singapore Sports Hub and Changi Airport.
Launched in 100 countries, the highly anticipated app was created by Meta to compete with Twitter at a time when many Twitter users are frustrated with its ever-changing rules since tech billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover in October 2022.
Similar to Twitter, Threads allows users to post text-based content that can be liked, commented on and shared.
Threads is closely tied to Instagram. It allows users to follow the same accounts they follow on Instagram and maintain their existing usernames. Those with blue ticks on Instagram will also have that verification carried over onto Threads.
Meta’s founder Mark Zuckerberg had earlier announced that Threads crossed a milestone of 10 million sign-ups within seven hours of launch.
According to The Verge’s senior news editor Richard Lawler, by about 9pm on Thursday, the platform had more than 25 million registered accounts.