Elon Musk wants ‘d**k measuring contest’ with Mark Zuckerberg
Elon Musk wants ‘d**k measuring contest’ with Mark Zuckerberg. (Kenzo Tribouillard and Chesnot/Getty Images)
Elon Musk has escalated his feud with Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, claiming he wants to have a “d**k measuring contest” with the fellow billionaire.
Ahead of the two tech moguls allegedly going head-to-head in a “cage match” in Las Vegas, 52-year-old Twitter CEO Musk called 39-year-old Meta CEO Zuckerberg a “cuck”, adding, “I propose a literal d**k measuring contest”.
The Tesla CEO added a measuring tape emoji, just in case his meaning wasn’t immediately clear.
Musk’s tweet came in response to a screenshot showing Zuckerberg’s conversation with fast food chain Wendy’s on Meta’s new Threads platform. The Wendy’s account suggested that Zuckerberg visit space to “really make” SpaceX founder Musk “mad”.
Public tension between the pair escalated after Meta launched its new platform Threads on Thursday (6 July). The text-based social media app is seen as a direct rival to Twitter, with Musk describing the site as a “copy-cat”.
Twitter has reportedly threatened to sue Meta over Threads, which saw 30 million sign-ups within 24 hours and 70 million within the first two days.
Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro wrote in a cease-and-desist letter: “Twitter has serious concerns that Meta Platforms has engaged in systematic, wilful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
Musk, who appeared put out by the release of Threads, tweeted: “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
Since Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, the proliferation of hate speech on the platform has skyrocketed, with posts mentioning the anti-LGBTQ+ slur “groomer” increasing by 119 per cent.
Under Musk, Twitter has been slammed for the alleged censorship of certain LGBTQ+ related terms, while Musk has personally claimed the word ‘cisgender’ is a “slur”.
Contacting Twitter’s press office now results in the automatic response of a poop emoji.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found that since the tech mogul’s takeover, there have been an average of 3,011 tweets per day mentioning LGBTQ+ people alongside slurs including “groomer”, “predator” or “paedophile”.
Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the CCDH said that “hate-filled lies” about the LGBTQ+ community are mirrored by an “alarming” rise in real-world violence.
“Elon Musk put up the ‘bat signal’ to homophobes, transphobes, racists and all manner of disinformation actors, encouraging them to flood onto Twitter,” Ahmed said.
“Twitter must decide if they believe in the fundamental rights and freedoms of LGBTQ+ people, or if they want to continue profiting from and normalising hate … They cannot do both.”
