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A photo of meta boss Mark Zuckerberg (39) is currently circulating on Twitter, which arouses many suspicions. The American entrepreneur is barely recognizable in the shot: sweaty, fit and surrounded by two of the most successful mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters – Israel Adesanya (33) on his left and Alex Volkanovski (34) on his right. What is happening?
The Meta CEO seems to be preparing for the upcoming cage fight with his opponent and Twitter boss Elon Musk (52). The dispute between the two tech billionaires started in June, just before Zuckerberg launched his new Twitter alternative, Threads.
Zuckerberg accepted the fight that same day
The background to the dispute was a leaked internal meta-meeting, which stated that threads would be conducted “sensibly” — an obvious dig of Musk’s Twitter rule.
The Tesla boss didn’t let that pass and asked Zuckerberg for a cage fight. Zuckerberg accepted the same day. However, it is still unclear whether the tech billionaires will actually fight each other.
Musk threatened Meta with a lawsuit
The dispute between the two went into the next round last week: Musk threatened Meta with a lawsuit over the new Threads app.
The allegation: Meta “illegally misappropriated trade secrets and other intellectual property” from Twitter. Facebook’s parent company has denied the allegations.
Musk accused Zuckerberg of employing numerous former Twitter employees who still had access to “trade secrets and other highly confidential information.”
The employees have been deployed specifically to create a copycat app within a few months that will compete with Twitter. Twitter reserves all rights to protect its intellectual property, including legal remedies. “Competition is okay, cheating isn’t,” Musk said.
Wires are through the roof
Meta contradicted the claim that these employees were recruited specifically for Threads: “Nobody on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not the case,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a post on the new Platform.
Twitter competitor Threads was released in about 100 countries last Wednesday. According to Meta boss Zuckerberg, the app was downloaded 30 million times within hours. However, the launch in Europe has been delayed due to pending approval from Brussels.
Threads is Twitter’s biggest challenger to date, sharing similarities with the short message service. A number of potential competitors have positioned themselves, especially since Tesla billionaire Musk’s acquisition of Twitter last year. So far, however, none have been able to establish themselves as a real alternative. (dzc/AFP)
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
