Meta appears to automatically create Threads shadow accounts for everyone on Instagram and allows users to follow those shadows

There’s plenty of things to hate Meta for, but this is inaccurate.

You log into Threads with your Instagram account. There’s no “shadow account”, you’re logging into a second service with the same account and credentials.

I agree that the wording is inaccurate, but some of the essence remains: the second "service" is forced on you. It's somewhat as if anyone with a Fakebook account also automatically had a Whatsapp or Instagram account, or some permutation of this.
- It’s not forced on you. If you don’t download Threads and log in, you’re not on threads.
  
  This is akin to saying Google Calendar is “forced” on you if you have a Gmail account. They are separate services that use a common credential, you are under no obligation to use any or all of those services.
Okay, but that still means their user count is fake.
- Instagram has over a billion users.
  
  Their user count is the number of Instagram users that have activated threads.
  
  If you follow someone who hasn’t, it will automatically follow them if they do activate. That doesn’t mean they created some shadow profile.
Yeah, they probably just duplicated the username DB from instagram, so whenever someone starts using Threads, their username will already be “reserved” for them in an empty profile.
- It’s probably even more simple than that - a single DB with a flag for threads_enabled = true/false.
  
  They made it super clear in advance this is how it would work, the app is called “Threads, an Instagram app”, but as always people froth at the mouth for any opportunity to say “Zuckerberg bad”.
  
  That’s not some big secret. Everyone knows meta sucks. We don’t need to make stuff up to prove that. They do that on their own.

"Hey, we already have 30 million users in just 3 days! Look everyone how relevant we are!!"

Sure buddy.

This is stupid. If you “follow” someone who is on Instagram but isn’t on Threads, it automatically follows them when/if they sign up for Threads. It even tells you this on the page.

How does it know you exist? Because it suggests you follow everyone you are already following on Instagram. It is using your Instagram account, there is no standalone Threads account. This isn’t rocket science.

When they say the numbers, they are talking about the number of Instagram users that have also signed up for Threads. For a while it when put a badge on your Instagram profile with what sign up number you were.

It’s not stupid, you shouldn’t be able to discover users in one service from another unless those user have explicitly opted in. It’s not a technical issue, it’s a principals issue.

In this case, you create a Threads account and you should be able to discover everyone else who has also made a Threads account (cos that’s the point), but you shouldn’t be able to see Instagram only users unless they have explicitly said that’s ok.

This is probably all ‘explained’ in the T&C’s, buts that’s getting into a whole other thing
- There is no such thing as a Threads account.
  
  There is nothing to see except for account names you are already following, in a specific onboarding screen that tells you that it is doing that. You cannot discover people who haven’t created a Threads profile. This is like being upset that your Facebook friends show up in Facebook Messenger, and far less intrusive than say, LinkedIn invites.

i am begging fedi users to understand that threads and instagram use the same account

At this point it's just willful ignorance.
- No, it’s just that users don’t like systems where you have to opt out by default. Like you used to have to opt out of shitty marketing emails after a purchase, but then we changed that to opt in and everyone is happier.

Reptilian alien who controls the Meta universe: They "trust me". Dumb fucks.

Not only that, they create a 'shadow' profile of you even if you don't have any meta accounts at all.

https://www.newsweek.com/facebook-tracking-you-even-if-you-dont-have-account-888699

Yeah, Facebook has been doing this for years

So it's time to delete my old IG if I can remember the log in, got it.

If you used your real info, you can get it deleted by pretending to live in California. I think that Meta's compliance page is hard to find.

I'm not surprised because Meta said they were doing just that. Anyone who had an account on Instagram automatically has an account reserved for them on Threads. I don't see anything nefarious about it.

I don't think that's true. Example: a band I love has a Instagram at remembersportsband if I search threads for that name nothing comes up so I cannot follow them because they have not joined threads

They may have bulk imported a collection of accounts from Instagram into Threads to "kickstart" the site. And not every account was part of the collection.
- This is simply not true. Meta is not duplicating accounts into Threads. Your Threads and Instagram account are the exact same account. You delete one, you delete the other. There is no way to create a Threads account without first creating an Instagram account. And Threads is an opt-in application so you won't have it enabled for your IG account unless you sign up for it.

Now it makes sense why there already a couple of requests when I briefly installed threads.