EU Users Find Ways to Download Meta’s Unavailable Threads App

Benoit Berthelot and Thomas Seal
·2 min read

(Bloomberg) -- European football teams, media like Le Monde and Agence France-Presse and other organizations on the continent have found a way to get Meta Platforms Inc.’s new Threads app, even though the company hasn’t launched it in the European Union.

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Verified accounts for French media companies Le Figaro and Liberation were posting on the app the day it went live on Thursday as well as left wing French lawmaker Francois Ruffin, who deleted an initial post. German football club RB Leipzig and French peer Saint-Etienne also started posting on Threads, as well as a verified account for Real Madrid player Eduardo Camavinga.

Read More: Meta’s Threads App Won’t Launch in EU on Regulatory Concerns

Threads, which according to Mark Zuckerberg had already garnered more than 30 million users after it went live on Thursday morning, won’t be available in app stores in the 27 European Union countries while the company works out how the bloc’s regulations around data use will affect the app, a person familiar with the matter has said.

Still, there are other ways of getting access, such as connecting to the US App Store for the iPhone users, or an Android package kit. Also known as APKs, these programs let Android users download apps manually that aren’t on their Google Play store.

“Our subscribers are all French, it is not complicated to join the app”, said Mickaël Frison, who handles social networks for French daily Liberation. “It is a matter of days or weeks before politicians start to join if the conversation happens there.”

Representatives for the other media groups and football clubs didn’t respond to requests for comment. Ruffin didn’t respond to a request for comment. Real Madrid didn’t immediately respond on behalf of Camavinga.

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