On Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta launched a new social media platform, Threads, which has been dubbed a rival to Elon Musk’s Twitter. While the super-wealthy Tech bosses have agreed to a cage match, the real competition is on the internet.
Last week, according to an internal memo, Meta unveiled Threads to its staff, with chief product producer Chris Cox referring to it as “our response to Twitter” and stating it had been in the works since January. Cox said the company had been approaching public figures, including Oprah Winfrey and the Dali Lama, to defect to their site and had purportedly gotten feedback that sparked an immediate feud with Musk. Cox wrote:
We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution.
Musk shot back, tweeting:
Thank goodness they’re so sanely run.
Thank goodness they’re so sanely run
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2023
This isn’t the first time that Musk shaded the Meta team for their claim of “sanity” regarding the platform, which is code-named Project 92. In fact, it’s what sparked the cage-match challenge the tech titans have embarked on.
I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options. At least it will be “sane”. Was worried there for a moment.
I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options.
At least it will be “sane”. Was worried there for a moment 😅.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2023
I’m up for a cage match if he is lol
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2023
Since that time, the UFC Octagon has been touted as the location for the bout, and Musk has begun training sessions. But, in the internet theater, Twitter had a major blunder over the Independence Day holiday weekend, rate-limiting users and rendering the platform dysfunctional by any prior standards. Those issues seem to have been resolved but created an extremely disgruntled user base. Musk wrote:
We were getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users!
Temporary policies were implemented limiting non-verified users to viewing 600 tweets per day, initially, while blue checks could view ten times as many. This created a backlash, not only from leisure users but journalists who utilize the platform for up-to-date information and independent sources. Advertisers were miffed, too.
According to Mike Proulx, the vice president at Forrester, the recent chaos over the weekend has severely impacted the ability of advertisers to achieve the metrics they rely on, saying:
Advertisers depend on reach and engagement yet Twitter is currently decimating both.
Twitter’s current competitors, Mastodon and BlueSky, saw a boost in sign-ups over the last several days. Bluesky, a social media platform similar to Twitter but with a simpler interface, saw a 20 percent increase in its user base on Monday. However, the site has been struggling to handle the high demand and has now switched to an invite-only system, granting access to only 250,000 people.
But functionality isn’t the only concern of social media users; personal data privacy is another battleground, and Twitter’s former CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped into the fray. Dorsey posted a screenshot of the data Threads is collecting, writing, “All your Threads are belong to us.” Musk concurred with Dorsey, writing, “Yeah.”
The sensitive data section includes Threads gathering information on ethnicity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and childbirth information, disability, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, political opinion, genetic information, and biometric data.
Yeah
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2023
— Yokkabai (@yokkabai) July 4, 2023
— Yokkabai (@yokkabai) July 4, 2023
Additionally, a major difference is related to financial information, mostly due to Twitter not having any financial-related features yet, while such ideas have been touted as a future capability of the platform.
In his first tweet in eleven years, Zuckerberg posted a nondescript commentary using a popular meme of two versions of Spider-Man pointing fingers at each other.
— Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd) July 6, 2023
The unfolding competition between the tech mogul personalities and their platforms comes on the heels of an injunction placed on the Biden administration, barring officials from contacting social media companies in an effort to censor protected speech. The Department of Justice is appealing the ruling.
Read More:
What Is ‘Threads’ and Will It Take Down Twitter?
From Cagey Exchanges to MMA: Zuckerberg and Musk to Take Rivalry to the Octagon
Join the conversation as a VIP Member