It would appear that the rivalry between tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk is about to become more intense after the Meta Chief Executive Officer allowed a college student, Jack Sweeny, to track Elon Musk on the newly launched Meta app, Threads.
Mr Sweeny set up his Threads account, @elonmuskjet, on Threads and announced that the account had finally arrived on the new popular social media platform. However, Threads and Instagram quickly took it down last Friday.
One needs an Instagram account to set up a Threads account. Meta restored the accounts only to suspend them again hours later.
In the aftermath, full of apologies, Meta restored Mr Sweeny’s accounts, saying, “this error shouldn’t have happened. It’s been fixed.”
Before joining Threads, Mr Sweeny’s @ElonJet and his private accounts were suspended on Twitter.
Also read: Did peer pressure ‘force’ Kenyans into joining ‘Threads’ app?
Mr Sweeny claimed he used public information to update the account, and it could be used to show where Elon Musk was going and could give clues as to what interests Mr Musk currently had in terms of investments and partnerships.
However, Mr Musk was not happy with these accounts and offered $5,000 dollars to the 20-year-old to shut down the jet account, but he refused. He instead asked for $50,000 and a Tesla car.
Ultimately, he was banned after creating a second jet account, @ElonJetNextDay. He was ridiculed for asking for money and a car instead of a job with a long-term contract at the Fortune 500 companies Elon Musk owns.
“Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.” Elon Musk said on the Twitter suspension and ban.
Mr Sweeny being allowed to track Elon Musk’s jet sheds more light on the rivalry between Threads and Twitter.
Threads was launched earlier this month, and it mimics Twitter in several ways. Currently, Twitter is in court suing Threads for copying its App and recruiting former Twitter staff to develop the Threads app. Elon Musk responded to the lawsuit by saying “competition is fine, cheating is not.”
