Threads, owned by Meta, suspended its app in Turkey as the county’s competition authority decided that the way Meta shared data between Instagram and Threads apps could lead to power abuse in the market.
The company announced this decision in a blog post. The order to shut down the app was issued by the Turkish Competition Authority. The order is part of a broader investigation by the Turkish Competition Authority over anticompetitive behavior.
The Turkish Competition Authority announced in December that it was examining Threads, which, given its users’ data from Instagram, could be in violation of the Turkish competition law.
The Turkish Competition Authority is now asking the Meta to separate the two platforms while it continues the investigation. Basically, it means that Threads will need to be shut down until the result of the investigation into it.
Meta Said, “To comply with an interim order of the Rekabet Kurumu/Turkish Competition Authority (TCA), we will shut down Threads in Türkiye from Monday 29 April. We know this will be very disappointing for the many people in Türkiye who engage in Threads with their community.”
Meta also expressed that they will continue with the Turkish Competition Authority and resolve this issue as soon as possible.
“We disagree with the interim order, we believe we are in compliance with all Turkish legal requirements, and we will appeal. The TCA’s interim order leaves us with no choice but to temporarily shut down Threads in Türkiye. We will continue to constructively engage with the TCA and hope to bring Threads back to people in Türkiye as quickly as possible.”
It is unclear what will happen in the future, but right now Threads is permanently suspended.
