Hundreds of Government Agencies Have Opened Threads Accounts

Less than 24 hours after the launch of Meta’s new social media platform Threads, at least 250 verified and unverified local and state government accounts have been created on the app, gaining a collective following of more than 80,000 people.

According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the platform reached 70 million downloads by July 7. The new app was built by the Instagram team to foster public conversations and share text updates up to 500 characters long. Users can also post links, photos and videos up to five minutes in length.

Government Technology analyzed the Threads platform for government agency activity and accounts, identifying hundreds of local, state and national government agencies that have already set up accounts on the Twitter competitor. Some have simply posted curious welcome messages, while others are already using the platform to share public information.
Cities were the most common type of government agencies to create accounts in the first 24 hours, followed by school districts, police departments and public libraries.

HOW TO GET VERIFIED ON THREADS

Government Technology conducted a non-comprehensive review of government accounts and found many agencies have not yet been verified on the platform. Out of more than 250 accounts identified that claimed to belong to government agencies, less than half had been verified.
As the platform is linked to Instagram, accounts already verified on that platform are automatically verified on Threads. Meta also offers a paid subscription program that includes a verified badge, additional account protections and direct account support.

In the first 24 hours of the platform’s launch, government-affiliated accounts that were already verified typically had larger followings than those that did not: Unverified accounts had an average of 191 followers compared to an average of 595 followers on verified government accounts.

HOW TO USE THREADS

Meta stresses that Threads was created as a platform for “sharing text updates and joining public conversations.”

According to a blog post, Meta “built Threads with tools to enable positive, productive conversations.” Instagram’s Community Guidelines will be enforced on the app. The new platform also marks a milestone for Meta as its first app developed to be compatible with an open social networking protocol.

It’s what Meta is calling a new era of “diverse and interconnected networks.” The company shared that it plans to work with ActivityPub, the the open social networking protocol created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), so that people using compatible apps will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account. The goal is that posts from Threads will be accessible from other apps, allowing posters to reach new people with no added effort.

TOP THREADS ACCOUNTS TO FOLLOW

As of July 6, the verified government accounts with the largest followings belonged to the Miami-Dade County government, the city of Tampa, Fla., and the city of Boston.
Agencies seem to have a variety of plans for the new platform. Many have already started using it to share information and updates to constituents. Meanwhile, some fire, police and sheriff’s departments have posted a large amount of recruitment information. The Phoenix Police Department even created a verified recruiting page.

Only time will tell if Threads becomes a crucial messaging platform for government agencies to reach their communities.

“Feels like the beginning of something special, but we’ve got a lot of work ahead to build out the app,” Zuckerberg posted on his Threads account.