Over the past four years, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have “feuded” over everything from artificial intelligence to rockets.
The two moguls – one the owner of Tesla and SpaceX, the other the owner of Facebook – do not hide their animosity towards each other. When a SpaceX rocket caught fire, destroying a Facebook satellite in 2016, Zuckerberg posted a statement saying he was truly “disappointed” with SpaceX’s failure. And when Facebook was embroiled in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Musk publicly deleted the Facebook pages of Tesla and SpaceX, stating that Facebook made him “sick.”
Both Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are among the richest billionaires on the planet, making their disputes a unique situation, despite Silicon Valley standards. Although both have an interest in artificial intelligence and their companies have collaborated in the past, it seems that Musk and Zuckerberg have never been “on good terms.”
Here are some of their notable disputes:
The feud began in 2016 when a SpaceX rocket exploded, destroying a Facebook satellite
In September 2016, SpaceX tested the Falcon 9 rocket in Florida. Around 9 AM, the rocket exploded, destroying the AMOS-6 satellite of Facebook – which was attached to the Falcon 9 and on its way to orbit.
This satellite was part of Facebook’s Internet.org project aimed at bringing internet connectivity to developing countries and would have been Facebook’s first satellite in orbit.
Zuckerberg seemed very disappointed by the failure and wrote on Facebook that he was “deeply disappointed to learn that the failed launch of the SpaceX rocket destroyed our satellite – which was expected to bring connectivity to many entrepreneurs and people across continents.”
Two years later, Musk responded to Zuckerberg in an interview:
“Yes. I’m at fault for being an idiot. We gave them a free launch to make up for it, and they probably have insurance.”
In 2017, Zuckerberg criticized Musk when he spoke about artificial intelligence.
During a Facebook meeting, a viewer asked Zuckerberg what he thought about Musk’s fear that AI could pose a danger to people.
“I have a very strong opinion on this. It’s hard to understand people who oppose it and come up with horrifying scenarios. That’s really negative, and in some ways, I think it’s quite irresponsible.”
Musk, meanwhile, expressed concern about AI and responded: “I’ve talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited.”
In 2018, after the Facebook data breach scandal, Musk publicly announced the deletion of the Facebook pages of SpaceX and Tesla
After WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton tweeted with the hashtag #deletefacebook: “It’s time to delete Facebook,” Musk immediately replied: “What’s Facebook?”
A fan asked Musk if he would delete the Facebook page of SpaceX, Musk said: “I didn’t even know it existed. I’ll delete it right away.”
After another fan pointed out that Tesla also had a Facebook page, Musk replied: “That’s unfortunate.”
Shortly after, both the Facebook pages of SpaceX and Tesla disappeared.
In early 2020, Musk continued to oppose Facebook
In response to a tweet from Sacha Baron Cohen calling for more censorship of Facebook, Musk once again publicly advised people to delete the app.
Following the Capitol riot, Musk tweeted: “This is called the domino effect,” along with an image of a domino game, with the first domino representing “the women’s rating website on campus,” referencing the birth of Facebook at Harvard University. The last domino was about the rioters.
Musk also criticized Facebook’s data-sharing actions, tweeting another message about Facebook and referring to the company as a “spy” for forcing users to share personal data with Facebook.
Musk advised everyone to switch to the encrypted messaging app Signal. This post was also shared by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and several other tech leaders who also “dislike” Zuckerberg.
Source: BI