The Turkish Competition Authority concluded its investigation into Meta Platforms Inc over a potential violation of competition law by integrating its social media platforms Instagram and Threads after the company made commitments to prevent the sharing of data, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The authority announced in a statement on Thursday that the investigation into Meta, launched in late 2023, was concluded after the company presented a list of commitments on October 30 that aimed at eliminating concerns about data-sharing between its Instagram and Threads platforms.
Meta temporarily shut down Threads in Turkey as of April 29 in order to comply with an interim order from the competition authority.
According to the company’s commitments, as of the date the Threads application will be re-launched in Turkey, both users whose accounts have been suspended and new users will be able to use Threads by simply opening a Threads profile without requiring an Instagram account.
In addition, unless these users choose to merge their accounts, their data obtained through Threads will not be merged with Instagram.
The authority said it found the measures to be taken by Meta to prevent data-sharing effective, thus preventing violation of the competition law.
Meta launched the social networking venture Threads in July 2023, leveraging Instagram’s audience to build a new microblogging site to compete with X, formerly known as Twitter.
But unlike Instagram, which is photo and video-based, Threads is a predominantly text-based social-networking platform, though which users can also post media files such as photos, links and short videos.
Although the Threads app was immediately available in the US and more than 100 other countries, including the UK, its debut in Europe lagged until December 2023 due to strict privacy laws in the region.