MARK Zuckerberg and Elon Musk butted heads over the Meta co-founder’s eccentric Fourth of July video.
The tech titans have a contentious history, and their feud was reignited Thursday after Zuckerberg shared a clip to Instagram and Facebook.
In the video he donned a tuxedo as he rode a hydrofoil through the waves, taking swigs from a can of beer and clutching an American flag in the other hand.
“Happy birthday, America!” Zuckerberg captioned the post.
His supporters flocked to the comments to praise the stunt, with one user proclaiming, “Bro is the coolest billionaire CEO ever.”
However, not everyone was as supportive. Musk took to X, formerly Twitter, to hit out at his rival with a snide remark.
“May he continue to have fun on his yachts. I prefer to work,” the SpaceX founder snarked.
The pair made headlines last February after Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage fighting match.
“I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” Musk wrote on X, seemingly lightheartedly.
The proposition came amid rumors that Meta was working on a competitor to X.
The app, called Threads, debuted in July 2023 and reached 175 million monthly users earlier this week.
Despite similarities between the apps‘ interfaces, Meta insists the app is modeled after “what Instagram has done for photo and video,” per a spokesperson.
The brawl ultimately didn’t pan out, with Zuckerberg penning a response on Threads itself.
“Not holding my breath for Elon, but I’ll share details on my next fight when I’m ready,” he wrote.
“When I compete, I want to do it in a way that puts a spotlight on the elite athletes at the top of the game. You do that by working with professional orgs like the UFC or ONE to pull this off well and create a great card.”
The duo have traded fighting words in the past. In 2016, Zuckerberg said he was “deeply disappointed” after one of Meta‘s satellites was destroyed due to a SpaceX launch failure.
The satellite, he proclaimed, “would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent.”
And in February 2020, Musk appeared to hit out at Zuckerberg without reason, urging users to delete Facebook and branding it “lame.”
Months later, the Tesla founder lashed out again, calling Zuckerberg “partisan” over reports that he’d donated millions to nonprofit organizations helping government election offices.
The money, it turns out, helped pay for services like equipment to process mail ballots and drive-thru voting locations – and did not serve to benefit one party over the other.
Musk then went on to criticize WhatsApp just days later.
“WhatsApp cannot be trusted,” the billionaire wrote in response to a user’s claim that the app had accessed his phone’s microphone while he slept.
Musk has only continued to criticize WhatsApp, writing in May 2024 that the app “exports your user data every night” and lambasting those who thought it was “secure.”
Meta has repeatedly faced criticism over violating data privacy, most recently for training its AI on Instagram and Facebook profiles.
Elon Musk Twitter buy timeline
Elon Musk bought the social media app citing altruistic reasonings for his aquisition.
April 2022: Negotiations for Musk to purchase Twitter began.
October 27, 2022: Musk finalized his purchase of X and began his rebranding efforts.
November 1, 2022: Twitter boars is dissolved, making Musk the “sole director” of the site.
July 23, 2023: Musk announces icon rebranding and X users point out the switch. “And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” he wrote.
July 24, 2023: Musk revealed the reason for the rebranding. “The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video,” he said.
Zuckerberg was hit with a lawsuit in 2022 after evidence emerged that Facebook allowed third-parties like Cambridge Analytica to obtain personal data from 87 million Americans.
Attorney General Karl A. Racine alleged the billionaire was “personally responsible” in a press release.
Musk is no stranger to criticism either. The world’s richest man has been accused of pushing conspiracy theories and twice reinstated accounts that posted child sexual exploitation content to X.
He has also faced condemnation over frequent Tesla recalls and flaws within the Cybertruck design.