Elon Musk has intensified his war of words with Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg by calling him a “cuck” after threatening to sue over his new Threads app.
In response to screenshots of the 39-year-old Zuckerberg laughing at burger chain Wendy’s telling him to go into space to “make Musk really crazy,” the Tesla CEO simply replied, “Zuck is a cuck.”
Musk, 52, and fellow tech billionaires Zuckerberg have seen tensions rise after they agreed to go head-to-head in a cage fight.
In what went viral, Musk tweeted on June 20 boasting that he’s “up for a cage match if he is,” to which the Meta boss responded on Instagram with “send me the location.”
Zuckerberg broke his decade-long Twitter silence by tweeting a Spider-Man meme to make Threads launch.
Musk, 52, and fellow tech billionaires Zuckerberg have seen tensions rise after they agreed to go head-to-head in a cage fight
His comment is the latest in a recent battle of words that has erupted between the two tech billionaires
The Twitter-like app, Threads, calls retweets “reposts” and tweets “threads.” It allows users to post up to 500 characters of text and up to five minutes of video.
Musk has also threatened to sue the platform, accusing it of poaching former employees to create a “copycat” app.
Twitter attorney Alex Spiro wrote in a letter released Thursday: “Twitter is deeply concerned that Meta Platforms (Meta”) has engaged in systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.
“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights and requires Meta to take immediate steps to stop using Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information.”
He also alleged that Meta instructed those staffers to create “copycat Threads” with the intent to use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property to further the development of Twitter’s competitor.
The decision to establish the rival comes after Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October last year.
Musk has since led a series of controversial moves, including cutting staff and limiting the number of posts people can see in a day.
That has caused Twitter’s value to plummet, with Fidelity recently estimating that Twitter is worth only a third of what Musk paid.
In response to screenshots of Zuckerberg, 39, laughing at burger chain Wendy’s telling him to go into space to “make Musk really angry,” the Tesla CEO simply replied, “Zuck is a cuck.”
Musk is reportedly training in martial arts ahead of his head-to-head fight with Zuckerberg – which took the tech world by surprise
He lashed out at Meta’s new platform, claiming it spreads “false happiness” just like Instagram – which is also owned by Meta.
Musk responded to the news of the potential lawsuit by stating on Twitter that “competition is fine, cheating is not.”
Zuckerberg has yet to respond to the threat of a lawsuit.
Threads has been nicknamed the “Twitter Killer” online amid animosity between the rival billionaires who recently agreed to go head-to-head in a cage fight – with Rome’s Colosseum as a potential venue, as well as Las Vegas.
Chef Gordon Ramsay, pop star Shakira and Mark Hoyle, better known as the YouTuber LadBaby, have already joined Threads and made their presence known on the app.
Said Zuckerberg this week, “I think there should be a public conversation app with over 1 billion people on it. Twitter has had a chance to do this, but it hasn’t done it right. Hopefully we will.’
Twitter has fallen sharply since being taken over by the former richest man in the world – who was eager to take on the project after becoming disillusioned with the site’s alleged biases and moderation policies.
Twitter, owned by Elon Musk, has threatened legal action against Meta’s latest app Threads
Zuckerberg and Musk joked about fighting each other – but now it looks like a courtroom fight could happen after the launch of Threads
Threads has been nicknamed the “Twitter Killer” online amid animosity between the rival billionaires who recently agreed to go head-to-head in a cage fight. Pictured: Musk training for sumo wrestling
He said he wanted to build a “common digital city square” where all voices could be heard and discussed in a healthy way.
Changes in staff and positions, and the release of the ‘Twitter Files’ took the site in a radical new direction within weeks.
Twitter’s revolution became a bloodbath in the process, cutting staff by 80 percent to take the new direction, then losing users and advertisers as a small team struggled to manage disinformation, trolls and impersonation online.
Musk also recently announced limits on the number of tweets people can see per day at 600. Users who paid $8 for a blue tick could see more, but were capped at 6,000 views.
Twitter users have declared the site ‘dead’ since the controversial limits.
Musk claimed the restrictions are a temporary measure put in place because “data was looted so often it was a degrading service to normal users.”