It seems like an odd plot twist in a satirical film about the world of Big Tech: two competing tech billionaires challenge each other to a cage fight. But that’s not fiction. When it was announced late last month that Mark Zuckerberg was launching a platform to compete with Twitter, Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted: “I’m ready for a cage fight if he is.” Zuckerberg, the boss of Meta and an avid martial arts practitioner in his spare time, doesn’t let himself be known. “Send location,” he said on Instagram with a screenshot of Musk’s tweet.

A journalist from a technology magazine Threshold wanted to know if it was serious and contacted a Meta spokesperson. Zuckerberg’s message “speaks for itself,” he said.

Since then plans have become more concrete, write The New York Times. The newspaper spoke with chairman Dana White of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the main organizer of the martial arts event. The tech billionaire tells him they really want to fight each other: “They both want to do it.”

While the cage fight is in preparation, the Meta alternative for Twitter will be unveiled this week. Threads, the name, and according to Meta, this new platform is an application for “text-based conversation”.

The conversation app will be released on Thursday and can now be found in the app store. However, the app is not available in the EU for now, due to stricter European privacy rules. Users in the US and UK will have access to the new Meta app starting Thursday.

The interface is very similar to Twitter: you can like, repost (i.e. ‘retweet’), control who can read or comment on your messages (everyone, or just followers, only certain accounts).

Twitter’s new competitors lean on other Meta social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Users can start following all of their Instagram contacts on Threads if they want, and they can easily log into the new app via their Instagram account.

Huge blow to Twitter

The arrival of Threads could be a serious blow to Twitter, while it has been hanging on the ropes for some time. Since Musk bought the website in October last year for $44 billion, the problems have only gotten worse. For example, he recently decided to allow right-wing users who had been banned from Twitter again – various advertisers have (partially) pulled out as a result. Twitter announced in April that its ad revenue was 59 percent lower than the previous year.

Musk has also laid off more than 80 percent of Twitter’s employees since the acquisition. he told the BBC in April. Moreover, to frustrate users, he constantly invents new rules and restrictions. Since last week, Twitter has only been accessible to people with an account, while previously everyone, including non-members, could read messages on it. To the dismay of many, the company has also decided to limit the number of tweets you can view in one day to six hundred – which then becomes a thousand.

Musk’s antics have long created the need for an alternative to Twitter. The main alternatives so far are BlueSky and Mastodon, platforms that are more careful with user privacy than big tech companies. BlueSky works by invitation and has discontinued new members due to great interest.

According to Chris Cox, head of product development at Meta, there was a need for a Twitter alternative that was “executed in a healthy way,” he says. Threshold. By this, Cox was referring to the erratic way in which Musk ran his opinion platform.

In terms of privacy, Threads aren’t a great Twitter replacement at this point. In fact, the new app collects much more data from users. That’s why Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey – now working at BlueSky – published screenshots of the new conversational platform Meta’s privacy policy. Threads collect information about your contact, purchases, location, health and fitness, and financial information. Meta also registers your search history and the tech company keeps track of when and how long you’ve been using the app and which messages in Threads you’ve seen.

Due to this privacy risk, Threads is not available in the EU at this time. Guard reported Wednesday that European data privacy laws are holding back the rollout. It is hoped that Zuckerberg will continue to attract souls to Threads. With a combined three billion users across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, tech giant Meta is by far Twitter’s strongest competitor. Parties like Mastodon and BlueSky are much smaller.

Long cherished dream

Threads is an old dream come true for Zuckerberg. Already in Twitter’s early days, he unsuccessfully tried to buy the app. He then tried to do a lot more like Twitter on Facebook: the emphasis shifted to news and opinion – which was punished when it turned out that this led to massive disinformation. It also mimics the typical Twitter concept trending hashtags on its platforms Facebook and Instagram, which allows users to see what’s popular at the moment.

With Threads, Zuckerberg finally has his own Twitter counterpart. And he can immobilize his sick competitor. In Silicon Valley, some people are already calling this app the “Twitter Killer”.

And that cage fight? “Possible fight is in the Colosseum,” Elon Musk tweeted on June 30. The tabloid press loves it: a contemporary gladiatorial fight in Rome between two of the richest and most powerful men in the world? But according to the same tabloid, Italians would only be open to non-violent confrontation.

The more serious media interpreted the situation as typical of the Big Tech world. It is more common for leaders to bark and growl in public than in other sectors, says psychologist Katy Cook The New York Times. Author of Silicon Valley Psychology called the Big Tech world a “male-dominated, emotionally primitive” environment where leaders are rewarded for displaying uber-masculine behavior.

Musk has the biggest mouth so far. “I have a great trick I call ‘The Walrus,'” the tech billionaire tweeted, “where I lie on top of my opponent and do nothing.” But Zuckerberg has been practicing Brazilian jujitsu since last summer and recently beat an Uber engineer in a tournament.

Musk is less sporty. “I hardly ever train,” he said on Twitter, “except when I pick up my kids and throw them in the air.”

Update July 5, 4:30 p.m.: This article has been supplemented with the news that Threads will not be available in the EU on Thursday.