Threads is about to gain millions more users as Meta prepares for EU launch in a matter of days

Concern surrounding Elon Musk and his control of Twitter, or X as he decided to rename it, caused an exodus of users seeking a new social media home. The likes of Mastodon and Bluesky have proved popular, but it was Meta's Threads that generated the greatest levels of excitement.

Right from the offset, however, Threads fell victim to strict European data privacy regulations meaning it was unable to launch in the EU. Now this is set to change, with Meta counting down to an EU launch of Threads on December 14 giving the potential for millions of new user to access the service.

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While there is yet to be an official announcement from Meta, EU citizens who visit the Threads website are now greeted by a tantalizing countdown timer. The timer is due to hit zero on December 14, meaning that a previously untapped audience of millions of European users could be about to gain access to the social platform.

While this is not the first time there has been a suggestion of an EU launch for Threads, the is by far the closest we've got to anything official. A December launch has been hinted at previously, and a peek into the code of the Threads app includes references to "Threads EU Launch".

Timed to coincide with the holiday season, and with trust in X continuing to dwindle, Threads is likely to enjoy a boom over the days as Europeans start to explore a service they have been blocked form using for months.

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