Apple Bans Fake Threads That Deceived And Became One Of Its Most-Downloaded Apps

Photo 283293669 © Darkworx | Dreamstime.com

Meta copied Twitter and launched its own text-based social networking app called Threads. It now seems like, in a way, it’s being served a taste of its own medicine, with a slew of copycats that have emerged to ride on the platform’s meteoric rise.

Apple has severed ‘Threads for Insta’, a new app that was neither associated with Instagram nor its parent company, from its App Store.

The knockoff was only similar to the original in name, as upon installing it, users would learn that it was a content generator that utilized artificial intelligence to create posts.

Threads for Insta, released by Israel-based SocialKit LTD, also used an icon that combined features of the Instagram and Threads logos.

No. 1 in Sweden 🇸🇪 pic.twitter.com/rN20laAvpx

— Mysk 🇨🇦🇩🇪 (@mysk_co) July 11, 2023

According to TechCrunch, which cited data from real-time market research firm Sensor Tower, Threads for Insta was downloaded 300,000 times before it was pulled.

Not only that, but the app also shot up iOS App Store charts in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland this week. To put it simply, most of the downloads hailed from Europe, where Threads isn’t yet available due to regulatory restrictions in the EU.

With no official Threads app in their App Store, European users were likely deceived into installing the clone.

And also No. 1 on the Danish App Store pic.twitter.com/Xs1VOIoPDq

— Mysk 🇨🇦🇩🇪 (@mysk_co) July 11, 2023

No. in France 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/uszFhnKVAT

— Mysk 🇨🇦🇩🇪 (@mysk_co) July 11, 2023

Unraveling things even further, Instagram once released a social networking app called ‘Threads from Instagram’ that was more like Snapchat than Twitter. This version, launched in 2019, was discontinued in 2021 as it never caught on.

Besides banning the unofficial Threads for Insta, Apple also removed all of the developer’s apps and suspended it from operating on the App Store.

[via Gizmodo and TechCrunch, images via various sources]