After Threads launched, the tech billionaires' potential brawl seemed like a distant memory as they sniped away at each on their respective platforms.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images and Chesnot/Getty Images.
It's getting a bit pitiful for Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg as their feud continues to escalate, following the launch of Threads.
The two tech billionaires just haven't been able to help themselves from publicly squabbling like schoolkids in recent weeks. We were led to believe this would culminate in a bitter cage fight, but in reality, they just continue to trade feeble jabs at each other online.
On Thursday, just a day after the launch of Zuck's new obsession, Threads, it emerged that Musk was threatening to sue Meta over its Twitter clone, which was released in the middle of another meltdown for the bird app.
Alex Spiro, Musk's attorney, sent a legal threat to Zuckerberg – confirmed by Insider – citing "serious concerns" that Twitter's "trade secrets and other intellectual property" were used to build Threads.
The letter goes as far as suggesting Meta "hired dozens of former Twitter employees" (yes, those same Twitter employees that Musk decided he had no need for after laying them off), and put them to task on developing a Twitter copycat.
Meta's communications director Andy Stone took to Threads to say that "no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee."
Some have been quick to point out the pitiful state of it all. San Francisco-based VC Sheel Mohnot tweeted a copy of the legal threat to Zuckerberg from Musk's attorney with his concise summary of the situation: "This is lame from @elonmusk imo."
—Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) July 6, 2023
Musk has taken to Twitter too, as expected, to vent about the new threat facing him: "Competition is fine, cheating is not," he tweeted.
But Zuck has done little to hide the fact that this is personal for him.
The Meta chief's posting habit on Threads has revealed him to be a bit of a reply guy, who's still obsessed with fighting and Musk – with Threads (if that's what we're meant to call them) mostly consisting of responses to UFC fighters or poking fun at the Twitter owner.
Zuck has suggested he's "only in the opening moments of the first round" of this fight. He's also reacted with cry-laugh emojis to an artist's depiction of him standing topless and shredded in a ring with his hand held high as the supposed victor in his very public bout.
How seriously Musk should take all of this is still up for debate. Threads may turn out to be a "Twitter Killer," or it may not. According to The Verge's Alex Heath, Threads has already hit 48 million sign-ups, though analysts think it'll take more than quick growth to supplant Twitter.
The only thing that might keep Musk and Zuckerberg in check is the fact they each have an adult in the room to stop an all-out rumble in the jungle.
In Musk's case, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino should bring a level-headedness that her colleague is clearly lacking. With ad money flooding out the door at Twitter in recent months, there are relationships – rather than rivalries – that Musk would do well to prioritize to boost revenue.
For Zuck, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri offers a sobering presence. On Thursday, Mosseri acknowledged that although there's reason to be excited about how the launch has gone, "there are tons of basics" that are still missing from the app. These include hashtags, a "following" feed, and a messaging function, which means Threads is still a skeletal project.
Zuckerberg should recognize the same and focus on improving his pet project, even as Musk continues to throw both shade and cease-and-desist letters at him.
