Before the Twitter rival Threads went online, the tension between Zuckerberg and Musk had escalated high even on a personal level.

The recent launch of the social network Threads accelerated the rivalry between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, at the head of Twitter, a battle of egos between the two magnates in which the president of Meta seems to take advantage.

Even before the new Twitter-rivaling app went online, tensions had already escalated between the two businessmen when Musk publicly challenged Zuckerberg to a mixed martial arts match in late June.

With a reserved character and with a cold appearance, the CEO -executive director- of Meta replied: “Send me the place.”

Contrary to his custom, Zuckerberg tried his luck with humor to make fun of Elon Musk about the arrival of Threads, a platform that has already reached 100 million users in less than five days.

He also responded with a laughing emoji to a comment on the official account of the fast food chain Wendy’s, which suggested going to space “just to unnerve” Musk, who also runs the aerospace company SpaceX.

The star of the movie “The Social Network” also openly criticized Twitter, which according to him, is guilty of not having managed to maintain a positive climate on its platform, something that he promises to do in Threads.

Zuckerberg, now 39, cultivates a calmer image as a tech savvy who practices martial arts and cares for his daughters, but at the same time makes huge profits.

– ‘Boy behavior’ –

“It’s really unique to see these two billionaire individuals get into a verbal contest like that,” said Andrew Selepak, a professor at the University of Florida (Southeast).

“But the matter seems a bit unbalanced,” said the professor, considering that Elon Musk “has a boyish behavior”, contrary to Zuckerberg’s.

The difference between the two personalities seems to benefit the Facebook co-founder, who for years suffered from the deterioration of his reputation.

This due to the mixture of an uncontrolled appetite for power, his alleged lack of empathy, his glacial and robotic communication, but above all due to the use of personal user data by Facebook.

“These attacks by Musk have only helped Zuckerberg‘s image,” said analyst Rob Enderle.

In addition, Threads brought fresh air to Meta and her employer, at least in terms of their management differences with respect to Twitter and their own characteristics.

The new social network benefits for now from the absence of controversy, although it may be temporary. It also offers a stable and predictable alternative to Twitter users disappointed by its unforeseen changes with the arrival of Musk.

“I can understand the drive for profit, whereas in the case of Twitter, we are in the presence of a self-focused rich man with despicable ethical conduct,” added media and technology analyst Carolina Milanesi.

Strong rivalries between big tech businessmen are nothing new.

Two of the greatest personalities in this sector, the co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, and the boss of Microsoft, Bill Gates, also maintained a relationship between contempt and mutual admiration for decades.

Bill Gates’ successor, Steve Ballmer, “threw the furniture around him when people left (Microsoft) for Google. But this is madness,” recalls Rob Enderle, referring to the dispute between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

But Elon Musk responded strongly. He threatened Meta with a lawsuit for intellectual property violation, potentially viable according to him, for the hiring of former Twitter employees who would have transferred data on the network, which the Menlo Park (California) group refutes.

He also threw a few flags at Threads on Twitter – which has some 200 million users, according to observers – before moving on to harsher words.

“Zuck is a cuckold,” the billionaire of South African origin posted on Twitter using a term that, apart from rhyming with his last name, was adopted by the American extreme right to designate someone -in a very pejorative way- as an accomplice of the system .

With no response from Zuckerberg, Musk proposed in an icon message “a penis-measuring contest.” Zuckerberg ignored the taunt, though he hasn’t always stood by.

Hours after the release of Threads, Zuckerberg posted for the first time in more than a decade on his Twitter account a popular meme where the comic book character Spiderman (Spider-Man) points to another pair, in a tacit reference to the similarity between the two networks.