Who’s actually using Threads? Young protesters in Taiwan
Despite Meta’s promise to crack down on political content in the app, Taiwanese activists are using it to organize.
Photography by Shanshan Kao for Rest of World
By VIOLA ZHOU
24 MAY 2024
Meta’s Threads platform has become a new gathering space for young, progressive users in Taiwan.
During the ongoing protests in Taiwan, users are calling for participation and organizing supplies on Threads.
Meta’s promise to reduce political content on its platforms is causing concerns that users will lose nascent political communities.
As thousands of people gathered outside Taiwan’s legislature on Tuesday to protest against a bill that would give more power to China-friendly parties, Yuan, who was volunteering at a nearby church, noticed that the large crowd was running short on supplies.
He fired off posts on the Threads app listing items that protesters needed, such as snacks, bottled water, and plastic bags. Supplies arrived within minutes.
“My Threads page was like a wishing well,” Yuan, who requested to be identified with part of his first name for privacy reasons, told Rest of World. “We got everything we asked for.”
A 32-year-old bar owner in Taipei, Yuan has been lurking on Threads since Meta launched the Instagram-linked alternative to X last year. He posted on the app for the first time last weekend to help organize a protest against the island’s opposition lawmakers. His posts about the protests have been “liked” thousands of times.
Threads, which had 150 million monthly active users globally by April, is doing exceptionally well in Taiwan, where it’s commonly loosely transliterated as cui — because the “th” sound doesn’t appear in Mandarin. It works like X, allowing users to post 500-character-long text posts as well as audio, photos and short videos. Despite its small population of 23 million, Taiwan had 1.88 million active users on Threads from May 5 to 11, behind only the U.S., Japan, and Brazil, according to app-tracking site Data.ai.
Demonstrators at a protest outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, Taiwan on May 24, 2024.While young Taiwanese users discuss everything from relationships to celebrity gossip on Threads, the app has gradually become a gathering space for progressives, who favor independence from China to defend the island’s democracy. Despite Meta’s pledges to tame down political content on its platforms, Taiwanese users are flocking to Threads specifically for that purpose. Meta did not immediately respond to a Rest of World request for comment.
The Chinese government claims Taiwan to be its own territory, and has threatened to take it back by force. As President Lai Ching-te, with the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was inaugurated, opposition lawmakers from Kuomintang and the Taiwan People’s Party, which favor a more conciliatory stance towards China, pushed for a bill to increase the parliament’s oversight over the executive branch.
“It feels like we are starting fresh [on Threads].”
Young supporters of the DPP believe it to be an attempt to undermine the president’s power and Taiwan’s democracy. Thousands of people took to the streets this week, and many of them spread the news on Threads.
Chili Lee, a 32-year-old tattoo artist in Taipei, told Rest of World that she decided to join the protest on May 17 after seeing a Threads video showing a DPP lawmaker getting pushed off the legislature podium. When she joined the large demonstration on Tuesday, Lee checked Threads constantly for updates about where the crowd was moving. She read that the church Yuan was volunteering at was handing out food, and ended up getting a bowl of rice noodle soup. She shared a photo on Threads. “The ‘likes’ made me feel I had a duty to update internet users on what was happening,” Lee said. “I’m happy that I’m not alone in caring about politics.”
Chili Lee (right) and her husband Ken Lee joined the protests after seeing a video on Threads.
Protestors have been using a range of apps, including Facebook, Line, and Discord, to coordinate the leaderless protests, but many have found Threads to be the most effective in connecting with people outside their own social circles.
Singer Hana Hsu, who has used Threads to discuss politics since 2023, has been calling on the app’s users to join the protests since last weekend. During the demonstration, she informed fellow activists on Threads where they could confront China-leaning lawmakers. When she saw users posting they were joining alone, she connected them to others by tagging them together on Threads. “I hope no one is left by themselves,” Hsu told Rest of World.
Jason Liu, a former journalist who runs the popular podcast May I Ask, posted recordings from the protest scene, where people chanted slogans like “Defend democracy.” As a new platform, Liu told Rest of World, Threads is able to amplify the voices of ordinary users. “There is so much misinformation and fake accounts in Taiwan,” he said. “Everyone is looking for something real. Threads is proving to be doing just that.”
“The ‘likes’ made me feel I had a duty to update internet users on what was happening.”
X has never become mainstream in Taiwan. During the last major protest, the 2014 Sunflower Movement, student activists communicated through a mix of Facebook, local forums, and YouTube livestreams, participants told Rest of World.
But the youth have now found those platforms to be obsolete and too conservative. “It feels like we are starting fresh [on Threads],” Huang Tzu-ning, a 26-year-old education worker, told Rest of World. Huang, who began posting on the day of Taiwan’s presidential election, has been interacting with high school and university students about how to participate in politics. “Facebook no longer has these young groups.”
Katherine Chen, a communications professor at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan who also works on Meta’s Oversight Board, told Rest of World that Threads has created a bubble for young, progressive Taiwanese people, with less interference from older internet users and advertisements. The platform has created a new opportunity for the DPP to mobilize support, she said.
Protestors have been using a range of apps, including Facebook, Line, and Discord, to coordinate the leaderless protests, but many have found Threads to be the most effective in connecting with people outside their own social circles.
Singer Hana Hsu, who has used Threads to discuss politics since 2023, has been calling on the app’s users to join the protests since last weekend. During the demonstration, she informed fellow activists on Threads where they could confront China-leaning lawmakers. When she saw users posting they were joining alone, she connected them to others by tagging them together on Threads. “I hope no one is left by themselves,” Hsu told Rest of World.
Jason Liu, a former journalist who runs the popular podcast May I Ask, posted recordings from the protest scene, where people chanted slogans like “Defend democracy.” As a new platform, Liu told Rest of World, Threads is able to amplify the voices of ordinary users. “There is so much misinformation and fake accounts in Taiwan,” he said. “Everyone is looking for something real. Threads is proving to be doing just that.”
“The ‘likes’ made me feel I had a duty to update internet users on what was happening.”
X has never become mainstream in Taiwan. During the last major protest, the 2014 Sunflower Movement, student activists communicated through a mix of Facebook, local forums, and YouTube livestreams, participants told Rest of World.
But the youth have now found those platforms to be obsolete and too conservative. “It feels like we are starting fresh [on Threads],” Huang Tzu-ning, a 26-year-old education worker, told Rest of World. Huang, who began posting on the day of Taiwan’s presidential election, has been interacting with high school and university students about how to participate in politics. “Facebook no longer has these young groups.”
Katherine Chen, a communications professor at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan who also works on Meta’s Oversight Board, told Rest of World that Threads has created a bubble for young, progressive Taiwanese people, with less interference from older internet users and advertisements. The platform has created a new opportunity for the DPP to mobilize support, she said.
A demonstrator holds a meme mocking two opposition lawmakers, downloaded from Threads.
But freshly created political communities could be fragile as Meta promises to reduce the amount of political content users can see. Facebook began limiting political content in 2021, and Meta said this year that Instagram and Threads would also stop recommending political content, unless it came from accounts users were following. “Our goal is to preserve the ability for people to choose to interact with political content, while respecting each person’s appetite for it,” Meta’s head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, wrote on Threads in February.
Meta would likely focus on reducing political content in English to fend off criticisms from the U.S. public that it has been fueling polarization, according to Tama Leaver, a professor of internet studies at Curtin University in Australia. He told Rest of World that while the company might find the relatively civil discussions on Taiwan unalarming at the moment, rules could change. “It is entirely possible that Meta could flip the switch tomorrow, and visible and obvious political content could get significantly downplayed,” Leaver said.
Taiwanese users told Rest of World they worry how long Threads would be willing to host their activism. Huang, the education worker, called on users to add each other on messaging apps Line and Telegram, so people could stay in touch even if the algorithm on Threads stops promoting politics. That post got more than 2,300 likes.
“My worry is that the Taiwanese on our side rely too much on this place,” Huang said. “After all, this is a commercial platform run by the notorious Meta.”
Viola Zhou is a Rest of World Senior Reporter based in New York City.
But freshly created political communities could be fragile as Meta promises to reduce the amount of political content users can see. Facebook began limiting political content in 2021, and Meta said this year that Instagram and Threads would also stop recommending political content, unless it came from accounts users were following. “Our goal is to preserve the ability for people to choose to interact with political content, while respecting each person’s appetite for it,” Meta’s head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, wrote on Threads in February.
Meta would likely focus on reducing political content in English to fend off criticisms from the U.S. public that it has been fueling polarization, according to Tama Leaver, a professor of internet studies at Curtin University in Australia. He told Rest of World that while the company might find the relatively civil discussions on Taiwan unalarming at the moment, rules could change. “It is entirely possible that Meta could flip the switch tomorrow, and visible and obvious political content could get significantly downplayed,” Leaver said.
Taiwanese users told Rest of World they worry how long Threads would be willing to host their activism. Huang, the education worker, called on users to add each other on messaging apps Line and Telegram, so people could stay in touch even if the algorithm on Threads stops promoting politics. That post got more than 2,300 likes.
“My worry is that the Taiwanese on our side rely too much on this place,” Huang said. “After all, this is a commercial platform run by the notorious Meta.”
Viola Zhou is a Rest of World Senior Reporter based in New York City.
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