News

You Can Now Delete Threads And Keep Your Instagram Account

Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, announced the update, which allows users to delete a Threads profile without affecting their Instagram account.

Published

3 years ago

November 14, 2023

Nour Nasir

you can now delete threads and keep your instagram account

Meta’s micro-blogging platform Threads, a rival to Elon Musk’s X, went live in July and has already gained popularity. However, users have complained about several missing features, not least of which is that the site only lets you remove your profile by completely deleting your main Instagram account.

Now, Instagram head Adam Mosseri has announced a much-requested update that rectifies the issue, allowing users to delete their Threads profiles without interfering with their Instagram accounts. The update can be accessed by going to Settings > Account > Delete or Deactivate Profile. There, users can select delete to completely remove their Threads account.

Threads is also rolling out another update that gives users more control over who can view their posts across Meta’s other social platforms. Currently, posts on Threads also appear on Instagram and Facebook, but you’ll soon be able to opt out by accessing the Privacy section in the Settings menu.

Also Read: Top E-Commerce Websites In The Middle East In 2023

Threads has recently been criticized for excessive data collection — a concern shared by users of Meta’s other apps. Despite a record-breaking July 2023 launch that made it the fastest app to reach 100 million downloads, the platform has also struggled with user retention.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained to employees that the company was focused on improving user retention. “Obviously, if you have more than 100 million people sign up, it would be awesome if all of them or even half of them stuck around. We’re not there yet, ” he said.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.