Mark Zuckerberg is posting on X again despite running Threads, Meta’s direct rival to Elon Musk’s platform. The Meta CEO says the choice is not about favouring one service over the other, but about reaching different audiences, particularly as Meta looks to expand the reach of its artificial intelligence products. Mark Zuckerberg is back on X after a three-year absence, even though Meta owns Threads, a platform built around much of the same text-based social media experience. So why return to a rival service when he has a competing platform of his own?
The Meta chief addressed that question during a recent podcast, arguing that social media is ultimately about finding the audience you want to communicate with. While Threads has grown substantially since its launch, Zuckerberg said X still has communities that make it useful, particularly people interested in artificial intelligence. Mark Zuckerberg explains his return to X Zuckerberg’s renewed activity on X began in July 2026, when he posted about Muse Spark 1.1, Meta’s latest AI model.
It marked his first post on the platform in around three years. The decision might appear unusual given the rivalry between X and Threads, but Zuckerberg said there is no reason for Meta to limit its communication to one platform. In the podcast, he explained that Threads remains a major part of his social media strategy while X provides access to a different audience. “Threads is too great. It is probably bigger than X, or is about to be,” Zuckerberg said.
He pointed specifically to X’s concentration of AI-focused users. For a company increasingly putting artificial intelligence at the centre of its strategy, that audience can be valuable when Meta wants to discuss its models and products. Zuckerberg’s explanation also reflects a broader change in how companies use social networks. Rather than treating platforms as exclusive channels, Meta can publish similar updates across multiple services and let users decide where they want to follow the conversation.
He said he posts the same material on Threads as well, framing the decision around engagement and communication rather than loyalty to a particular platform. Is Threads bigger than X? Zuckerberg’s comments come as Threads continues to expand. Meta launched the platform in July 2023 through Instagram, allowing users to carry over elements of their existing Instagram networks. It gained 10 million sign-ups within its first seven hours and passed 100 million within five days. Three years later, Meta said Threads had reached 500 million monthly active users in June 2026.
Forbes had also previously reported that the service had surpassed X in daily active users, although the two companies do not necessarily use identical methods for measuring activity. That does not mean X has become irrelevant to Meta. Zuckerberg’s own return illustrates why the platform can still matter: its user base includes influential technology and AI communities that Meta may want to reach directly.
The competition between the two services is also tied to the long-running rivalry between Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Threads’ launch reignited their public exchanges in 2023, including a proposed cage fight that ultimately never happened. Musk also dismissed Threads and X’s then-owner Twitter threatened legal action against Meta over allegations involving trade secrets. For Zuckerberg, however, his latest explanation is considerably less personal.
Threads may be Meta’s answer to X, but he appears willing to use both platforms when they offer access to audiences that matter to the company.
Culled from https://www.firstpost.com/
