economie

Inside the nearly 8-year-long feud between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg

May 28, 20240
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have threatened to take their feud to the next level and face each other in a cage match.

Susan Walsh/AP; Erin Scott/Reuters

  • There’s no love lost between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. 
  • The CEOs have been feuding since 2016, when a SpaceX explosion destroyed a Facebook satellite.
  • Here’s a history of their feud.

For nearly eight years, two of tech’s biggest names — Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — have been caught up in a feud, clashing over topics like artificial intelligence and rockets.

The two men have been griping about each other behind closed doors for years, according to The Wall Street Journal. But the tech moguls haven’t exactly kept their rivalry a secret from the public, either.

When a rocket from Musk’s SpaceX exploded and destroyed a satellite from Zuckerberg’s Facebook in 2016, Zuckerberg issued a heated statement, saying he was “deeply disappointed” about SpaceX’s failure. And when Facebook became embroiled in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Musk publicly deleted his companies’ Facebook pages, tweeting that the company gave him “the willies.”

In June 2023, the two men threatened to make their fight physical and face each other in a cage match.

The two billionaires are among the richest people on the planet, placing them in an elite circle, even by Silicon Valley standards. Even though both work in artificial intelligence and social media, and their companies have partnered in the past, it seems there’s no love lost between Musk and Zuckerberg.

Here’s where their feud began and everything that’s happened since.

The Musk-Zuckerberg feud dates back to at least 2016, when a SpaceX rocket explosion destroyed a Facebook satellite.
Mark Zuckerberg said he doesn’t understand people who try to make up doomsday scenarios about AI.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

During a Facebook Live broadcast, a viewer asked Zuckerberg for his thoughts on Musk’s anxieties around AI.

“I have pretty strong opinions on this,” Zuckerberg said. “With AI especially, I’m really optimistic, and I think that people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios … I don’t understand it. It’s really negative, and in some ways, I actually think it’s pretty irresponsible.”

Musk, who has repeatedly called for regulation and caution when it comes to new AI technology, shot back on Twitter.

“I’ve talked to Mark about this,” he said in response to a tweet about Zuckerberg’s comments. “His understanding of the subject is limited.”

In 2018, following Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, Musk made a public show of deleting SpaceX and Tesla’s Facebook pages.
Musk deleted SpaceX and Tesla’s Facebook accounts in 2018.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

After the WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton tweeted, “It is time. #deletefacebook,” Musk responded, “What’s Facebook?”

A fan responded to Musk’s tweet asking whether he’d delete the SpaceX Facebook page, to which Musk responded, “I didn’t realize there was one. Will do.”

After another fan pointed out that Tesla had a Facebook page too, Musk tweeted that it “looks lame anyway.”

Soon after, both the SpaceX and Tesla pages disappeared from Facebook. Musk said it wasn’t a “political statement” and that he just found Facebook unsettling.

 

Musk continued his campaign against Facebook in early 2020.
Elon Musk urged people to delete Facebook.

Andrew Harnik/AP

 

In response to a tweet from the actor Sacha Baron Cohen, which called for more regulation of Facebook, Musk urged people once again to delete the app.

 

Following the riot at the US Capitol in 2021, Musk used Twitter to share memes linking the riots to Facebook.
Musk criticized Facebook’s data-sharing practices.

Maja Hitij/Getty Images

On the evening of the rampage in Washington, Musk tweeted, “This is called the domino effect,” along with an image of dominoes, with the first one labeled “a website to rate women on campus,” a reference to Facebook’s inception at Harvard University. The last domino referenced the rioters.

Musk also criticized Facebook’s data-sharing practices, tweeting another meme about Facebook that mentioned the company “spying” on users following the announcement by Facebook-owned WhatsApp that it would start forcing users to share their personal data with the platform.

Musk tweeted that people should “use Signal,” an encrypted messaging app. His tweet was retweeted by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, another tech executive who has sparred with Zuckerberg.

Last year, Musk criticized Zuckerberg’s ironclad control of Meta.
Elon Musk took over Twitter on October 27, 2022 and renamed it “X.”

Jonathan Raa/Getty Images

In December, Meta first brainstormed ideas for a Twitter competitor in order to capitalize on  Musk’s chaotic Twitter takeover, according to a report from The New York Times. The company confirmed to Platformer in March that it’s working on its own text-based social network, codenamed “Project 92.”

Earlier this month, Meta’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, appeared to mock Musk and Twitter by saying in an all-hands meeting that it the site will be “a platform that is sanely run.”

Musk hasn’t taken kindly to the news that Zuckerberg is creating an X competitor.
Musk taunted Zuckerberg on X.

Erin Scott/Reuters

The billionaire taunted Zuckerberg on X, formerly Twitter, about his rival text-based social media platform.

“I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options,” Musk posted in June.

Later writing: “Zuck my” with a tongue emoji.

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https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-vs-mark-zuckerberg-feud-history-2021-1