Facebook behemoth Meta on Wednesday launched Threads, a text-based rival to Twitter, creating the biggest threat yet to the embattled platform owned by Elon Musk.

"Let's do this. Welcome to Threads," wrote Meta chief executive and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in his first post on the nascent platform.

Threads allows users to post up to 500 characters and has many features similar to Twitter.

Zuckerberg said the app passed 10 million sign-ups in its first seven hours.

According to BBC, Threads can be downloaded in more than 100 countries including the UK, but not yet in the EU due to regulatory concerns.