Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has expressed his disapproval of the launch of Meta’s new Twitter rival, Threads. On Wednesday, Musk took to Twitter to criticize the Meta-owned Instagram while users were flocking to Mark Zuckerberg’s newly launched platform.
In a tweet, Musk stated that “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.” This tweet was in response to another Twitter user, Internal Tech Emails, who had posted a screenshot of an email from Musk about Instagram dated August 21, 2018. In the email, Musk had written “I just deleted my Instagram. Weak sauce.”
Musk’s History with Instagram
Musk had indeed deleted his Instagram account back in 2018 and had expressed his dislike for the platform.
The Launch of Threads
Meanwhile, Meta launched its new text-based app, Threads, on Wednesday. The platform saw a huge influx of users with more than five million people signing up within the first four hours of its launch, according to Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg’s Ambition to Outdo Twitter
Zuckerberg has been vocal about his ambition to outdo Twitter, which is owned by Musk. He spent the first few hours after the launch of Threads posting sassy comments about Musk. In response to a user’s question about whether Threads could beat Twitter, Zuckerberg said “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”
The Challenge
Musk has previously expressed his disdain for Meta’s attempt to create a rival for Twitter. This led to a bizarre turn of events where he challenged Zuckerberg to a cage match to settle their differences. Zuckerberg accepted the challenge, but it is not yet known when or where such a fight would take place.
Response from Musk’s Representatives
When asked for comment, representatives for Musk at Twitter responded with an automated message that did not address the questions asked.