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Elon Musk prefers “noble debate” over cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg

By Laura Harris // Aug 15, 2023

TAGS: Big Tech, cage fighting, computing, cyber war, deception, Elon Musk, Facebook, Glitch, information technology, Instagram, mark zuckerberg, meta, noble debate, Social media, tech giants, technocrats, Threads, Twitter

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Elon Musk is now considering the idea of having a "noble debate" with Mark Zuckerberg instead of a cage fight. The billionaire tech mogul had initially set the internet abuzz with talk of a potential face-off between him and the Facebook founder, but his recent tweets suggest a change in plans.

On August 5, Musk took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to announce that if the cage fight were to happen, it would be livestreamed on his platform. However, just hours later, he tweeted about potential health concerns that could delay the fight.

"May require surgery before the fight can happen. Will know this week," Musk tweeted, sparking concerns about the feasibility of the event.

Meanwhile, TED curator Chris Anderson proposed the idea of a "cage match debate" about "how to build an amazing future" between the two tech giants. And Musk seemed to agree with it.

"This is really fighting as (I believe) a noble sport," Musk replied, indicating a newfound appreciation for the idea. "We also hope, with humility, to express our admiration for those who have fought before for noble causes."

This alternative proposal echoes the sentiments of Musk's own mother, Maye Musk, who had earlier tweeted in June suggesting a "verbal fight only" where each participant would respond to three questions with the funniest answers winning.

Musk and Zuckerberg have been battling for a while now

Musk's and Zuckerberg's social media platforms have become two of the most influential media in the world of the internet.

In the past few months, Zuckerberg has been trying to dethrone Musk and his Twitter app. In July, Zuckerberg launched Threads, a new text-based social media platform with a close resemblance to Twitter. Threads was built to work with Zuckerberg's current apps, including Facebook and Instagram along with messaging platforms Messenger and Whatsapp. (Related: Battle of Tech Titans: Zuckerberg’s Threads trying to dethrone Musk’s Twitter (but is failing miserably).)

Zuckerberg capitalized on the recent challenges Twitter had to deal with as a result of Musk acquiring Twitter back in 2022. Since Musk's takeover, Twitter experienced mass layoffs, frequent system outages and a problematic rollout of a new verification system.

While Musk was busy fixing his problems, Zuckerberg was secretly planning an attack. But not long after the launch of Threads, Twitter responded and threatened to sue Meta over intellectual property theft allegations.

Alex Spiro, the lawyer of Twitter, sent a letter to Zuckerberg and accused Meta of engaging in "systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property." The letter stated that Twitter intends to uphold its intellectual property rights and demanded immediate action from Meta. Spiro even accused Meta of recruiting former Twitter employees to exploit confidential knowledge in the development of Threads.

However, Andy Stone, the communication director of Meta, vehemently denied Twitter's accusations. Stone emphasized that no former Twitter employees were involved in the Threads engineering team and that Meta had adhered to ethical and legal practices throughout the development of the app.

Musk weighed in on the dispute by saying: "Competition is fine, cheating is not."

Find the latest news about Twitter and Threads on BigTech.news.

Watch this edited battle-inspired video of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

More related stories:

Meta’s Threads hits 100M users a week after its launch, but immediately begins censoring “wrongthink.”

Twitter threatens to sue Meta over intellectual property theft allegations following its launch of Threads.

Meta launches Twitter rip-off “Threads” application, immediately starts censoring users for voicing unapproved thoughts.

Elon Musk rebrands Twitter as “X,” wants to turn it into an “everything app” similar to WeChat of China.

Zuckerpunch: Meta launches new text-based app to rival Twitter, then immediately begins censoring “wrongthink.”

Sources include: 

BusinessInsider.com

Edition.CNN.com

Semafor.com

Brighteon.com

Big Tech cage fighting computing cyber war deception Elon Musk Facebook Glitch information technology Instagram mark zuckerberg meta noble debate Social media tech giants technocrats Threads Twitter

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