Hours after Twitter-rival Threads' launch, Elon Musk takes a dig at Instagram

Replying to a tweet, Twitter executive chair Elon Musk said that he'd not want to indulge in “false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram”.

Twitter executive chair and CTO Elon Musk takes a dig at Instagram, just hours after the launch of Threads. (REUTERS)

Instagram-powered Twitter rival platform Threads has launched and is exploding with new users arriving every second. As of writing this, there are more than 5 million users registered on the platform. With all the success Threads is gearing up to give a big challenge to Twitter. But the executive chair and CTO Elon Musk is not one to back down easily. Just hours after Threads app's launch, Musk has taken a dig at Instagram and explicitly stated that he does not prefer the social network app.

Replying to a tweet about Musk deleting his Instagram account in 2018, he said, “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram”. He was hinting at the perception of Instagram that users tend to exaggerate their success and happiness on the platform.

Elon Musk takes a dig at Instagram

The latest dig is part of a long rivalry between Instagram's parent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Musk, ever since Threads, then known as Project 92, was leaked into the media.

Meta took the first shots by reportedly describing Threads as “a platform that is sanely run”. In response, Musk tweeted, “I'm sure Earth can't wait to be exclusively under Zuck's thumb with no other options. At least it will be “sane”. Was worried there for a moment”.

Later, responding to a user who reminded Musk that Zuckerberg knows jiu-jitsu, he said, “I'm up for a cage match if he is lol”. Zuckerberg also participated in the banter and replied on his Instagram story with “Send me the location”.

The rivalry is likely to get far more intense now that both billionaires have their own social media platforms that directly compete against each other. While Twitter is already an established platform with an estimated 450 million active users per month, Threads has also started an explosive growth reaching 5 million users in just six hours.