San Francisco, Dec 14 (IANS): Meta’s X rival Threads is finally available to users in the European Union, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday. The move will give Threads an opportunity to tap more than 448 million citizens in Europe.

In a post on Threads, Zuckerberg announced that Meta is opening up Threads to more countries in Europe.

“Today we’re opening Threads to more countries in Europe. Welcome everyone,” he wrote.

The move comes following Threads launch in over 100 countries — including the US and the UK — in mid-2023.

Meta is also giving users in the EU an ability to browse Threads without a profile.

The delay in launching Threads in EU countries has been widely blamed on the bloc’s recent introduction of the Digital Markets Act, reports The Verge.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri had blamed the delay on “the complexities with complying with some of the laws coming into effect next year”.

Companies like Meta, designated as “gatekeepers” under the DMA, have until March 2024 to comply with its requirements.

The DMA defines when a large online platform qualifies as a “gatekeeper”. These are digital platforms that provide an important gateway between business users and consumers – whose position can grant them the power to act as a private rule maker, and thus creating a bottleneck in the digital economy.

To address these issues, the DMA will define a series of obligations they will need to respect, including prohibiting gatekeepers from engaging in certain behaviours.