I’m sick of billionaire tech overloads trash-talking each other. Rather than innovate, or solve the critical problems plaguing their own products and services, most prefer to go around in circles criticizing and naysaying, calling out the critical problems plaguing their rivals instead.
But this week, the catcalling has led to something truly amazing—Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have agreed to fight each other in a cage match.
Yes, I just wrote those words.
Let’s step back a few beats. The cause of this rift started with beef brewing over Meta’s soon-to-be-released Twitter clone. Musk is annoyed it's coming (obviously) and has been taking swipes at Zuckerberg, especially after it became public that Meta has been throwing shade at Musk over his running of Twitter. During a company-wide meeting earlier this month, Meta chief product officer Chris Cox had said, "been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run."
It seems this jab hurt.
In a Twitter thread discussing “Project 92” (the name for Meta’s copycat product), a user warned Musk to be careful with his dissing because Zuck “does the Ju Jitsu now.” Musk’s response?
“I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.”
Normally, that would be the end of it. Another silly joke for Musk, thrown out into the Twittersphere while sitting on the toilet at 4 am. Nothing more than a brain fart. But what made this spicier is that Zuckerberg responded by posting a screenshot of Musk’s tweet with the caption “send me location.”
Musk then did just that, choosing the venue — the Vegas Octagon.
What a spectacle. Two tech titans in the cage, fighting to decide once and for all who is the king of the valley. Better yet, they could raise the stakes. The winner gets to run their version of Twitter? To continue this fantasy further, who would win in this brawl? Zuckerberg recently completed the Murph Challenge in 39 minutes 58 seconds, which is extremely impressive. For those unaware, the Murph Challenge consists of a one-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and another one-mile run, all done while wearing a weighted vest. Basically, Zuckerberg is a beast. Meanwhile, Musk recently admitted he doesn’t work out much. And we all saw those photos of his pasty white body on his boat, and shall we just say, it wasn’t in fighting condition.
I’d stick my buck on Zuck.
Of course, we will never see these two tech titans taking their tussle into a ring. Boring things like logistics, shareholders, worries about public perception and the small issue of insurance will ruin the fun. So instead, we’ll have to settle for the battleground being the business of social —Muskified Twitter vs Metavised Twitter.
Based on screenshots shown to The Verge, Meta has forgone innovation (surprise) in favor of copying the current Twitter concept. Calling it a clone is justified. Likes, comments, and retweets are all present, as are threaded conversations, circular profile pictures, the navigation bar at the bottom, and verified ticks.
I think this is a huge problem. Yes, there are issues with Twitter. Yes, the owner is erratic and definitely a net negative for the platform. But the solution is not to create the same thing again, but this time owned by the equally new-negative Meta. The company hardly has a squeaky clean track record either. The only real difference so far is that the standalone app will be integrated with ActivityPub, a decentralized social media protocol that’s also used by Mastodon. This could allow users to transfer audiences and data between multiple platforms. So there’s that? That might be a more interesting proposition if every social platform integrated the protocol. As to when the imposter arrives, Meta says it has been coding its Twitter clone since January, but there is no official launch date yet.
To me, it’s clear Meta pushed this concept through when the landscape looked shaky for Musk in that initial spell after his takeover. They thought they could capitalize on the incoming meltdown. Unfortunately for them, that meltdown was averted. Though ad spending is still suffering, Musk has settled things down. Twitter is still Twitter. It’s still a culturally significant platform. Now Meta is stuck shilling a product that nobody will use. Just like Mastodon, Bluesky and the other alternative apps, Twitter will outlast this competitor, and eventually, Zuckerberg will shut it down and brush it under the carpet.
I always thought we could settle the debate of who is more influential by what the individual has achieved. But in this case, both men are multi-billionaires. Both own platforms and companies worth multi-billions. Both have had a huge impact on society, both positively and negatively. So maybe the only way to settle this is to fight (ideally to the death). We can only hope that, much like Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, somewhere, somehow, there is a judge who can hold him legally responsible for fulfilling his proposal of a cage fight.
*Update Jun 23*: UFC President Dana White claims to have spoken to both contenders, and says they are “absolutely dead serious." He also added that there was “no limit on what this thing can make.” Is it actually on?!