As Threads Tops 100M Users, CNBC ‘Squawk Box’ Co-Host Joe Kernen Says Notion Of Twitter Under Threat Is Just “Mainstream Media” Hype: “I Wouldn’t Sell Elon Musk Short”

deadline.com:

Joe Kernen, co-host of CNBC’s Squawk Box, took aim at what he called “mainstream media” hype about the potential for Meta Platforms’ Threads to kill Twitter, insisting he is “not mainstream media.” He also said he “wouldn’t sell Elon Musk short” in the social media competition.

This morning’s exchange with Axios business editor Dan Primack (see video below) came during a segment noting that the Instagram-backed Threads has passed 100 million users in less than a week.

That initial growth rate beat that of Chat GPT, which was previously the fastest application to reach the milestone. Kernen, who has never exactly been shy about expressing his right-of-center views on the show, did most of the talking.

He argued that media coverage of Threads has been laudatory because of the fact that the Meta service has explicitly sought to de-emphasize politics and other controversial content verticals.