BBC Gives Up On Threads (By Instagram), Sticks With Mastodon
So numerous brands are giving up on Threads by Instagram, allegedly due to lack of engagement (ironically, most of them are still using X, formally known as Twitter).
What makes this news more interesting is the fact that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has abandoned its Threads account but is still maintaining its self-hosted Mastodon accounts online.
The National Football League hasn't posted anything in six weeks, before the start of the regular season. This is the nation's most popular sports league, and it has completely abandoned Meta's new platform. Even with its 1.9 million followers.
Among news publishers, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) stopped postingto Threads 11 weeks ago, not long after the launch. CBS News hasn't posted in five weeks. (KTLA5)
Earlier in the year (at the end of July), the BBC announced that they were engaging in a six-month experiment with Mastodon, & even self-hosted their content on their custom domain: Social.bbc (how cool is that!).
While accounts like @BBC5Live@social.bbc & @BBCRadio4@social.bbc remain relatively active, @bbc@threads.net appears abandoned, despite boasting far higher engagement levels on Meta’s Twitter rival (now called X).
But why would the BBC abandon Threads while maintaining a presence on Mastodon as well as other social media platforms‽ There are three possible theories:
BBC might be weary of posting content to Threads after Meta geo-banned Canadian news outlets after Canadian legislators passed a “news tax” law (note: the law is silly, but I digress).
BBC prefers to control its social narrative, & will redirect followers from Threads to their Mastodon accounts once Threads joins the Fediverse.
BBC thinks Threads is a waste of time & resources as Threads lacks a public API to help automate posting news to their account.
Could the BBC eventually shut down their Mastodon account by the time 2024 arrives‽ Sure. But I suspect that with X dying, Threads stagnating, & Meta raging, the BBC might keep their Mastodon account active to avoid having their voice limited online.
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