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TWITTER VS META: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg Challenge Themselves To A Cage Fight

Faith Ukanwa

Jun 23, 2023

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TWITTER VS META: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg Challenge Themselves To A Cage Fight
Tech titans; Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are in a fierce business rivalry that has spilled over into a playground spat, with the two men offering to fight each other in a cage.

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Months after Musk took over Twitter, Zuckerberg's Meta hinted it was planning to launch its own text-based social media platform - essentially a direct rival.

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Musk has trolled Zuckerberg ever since with messages on Twitter, telling his fans this week: "I'm up for a cage match if he is lol."

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Zuckerberg, who has followed the trend of tech bosses getting buff and posting martial arts videos, responded on Wednesday on his Instagram Stories with a screenshot of the message and a response: "Send me location."

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Meta confirmed to AFP that Zuckerberg's message was genuine.

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The exchange has provoked mirth on social media with plenty of fight predictions - Zuckerberg emerging as the clear favourite.

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"Please god let this happen," technology journalist Taylor Lorenz wrote on Twitter.

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"The best Musk-Zuckerberg cage match is one in which two men enter and no men leave," wrote podcaster Bennett Tomlin.

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The two men have baited each other for years with opposing views on everything from politics to artificial intelligence.

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But their new business rivalry has supercharged the animosity.

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Musk responded angrily to a recent claim by a Meta official that there was appetite for a "sanely run" Twitter alternative.

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The Tesla and SpaceX boss bought the social media firm for $44 billion before sacking much of its staff and allowing banned right-wing conspiracy theorists back onto the platform - sending advertisers fleeing.

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Musk defended his handling of Twitter at an event in Paris last week, saying advertisers had come back and he had eliminated almost all bots.

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In an interview earlier this month with US podcaster Lex Fridman, Zuckerberg was asked to say something positive about Musk's handling of Twitter.

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After an eight-second pause for thought, he said Musk had "led a push early on to make Twitter a lot leaner", a move he said was good for the industry.

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Zuckerberg announced thousands of job cuts at his firm months after Musk did so at Twitter.

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AFP

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— Faith Ukanwa

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