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The Street
The Street
Ian Krietzberg

Elon Musk Is Feeling Nervous About the Competition

Since Mark Zuckerberg launched Threads last week, Elon Musk has spent at least some of his time on Twitter criticizing Zuckerberg and his new app, challenging him to more (immature) contests and touting the value of Twitter's platform as it compares to Threads. 

Zuckerberg has likewise been active on his new platform, highlighting the differences between the two, mainly that Threads is designed to be a "friendly" place, free of the vitriol that has become so common on Twitter. 

DON'T MISS: The Long and Bitter War Between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg

"The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands," Zuckerberg wrote in a thread last week. "I think it's possible and will ultimately be the key to its success. That's one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently." 

Musk, however, thinks that the friendliness that Zuckerberg is keen to highlight is "false." He prefers more of a realistic balance that he says can be found on Twitter. 

"You will get more laughs from this app than everything else combined. But I have to warn you … don’t be shocked … there’s some negative stuff too," the billionaire tweeted July 10, adding the next day that, "You are free to be your true self here."

More Elon Musk & Mark Zuckerberg:

In a separate tweet that was seen more than 19 million times, he highlighted a new Twitter feature. 

This initial version of Threads -- which has become the fastest-growing social platform in history, surpassing 100 million users in five days -- allows users to post texts up to 500 characters in length that can include photos, links and videos up to five minutes long. 

The first updates to the platform -- including an edit button, following feed and post search -- are slated to start rolling out this week, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri

"It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter," Musk tweeted July 5, "than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram,

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