Tech rivalry intensifies as Zuckerberg allows Musk jet tracker on Threads

The rivalry between tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk is heating up, after Meta CEO Zuckerberg allowed a college student, Jack Sweeney, to track Elon Musk’s private jet on the newly launched Meta app, Threads.

Sweeney set up his Threads account, @elonmuskjet, on Friday, but it was quickly taken down by Threads and Instagram. Meta later restored the account, saying that the removal was an error.

Sweeney’s account tracks the location of Musk’s private jet using publicly available data. Musk has previously expressed displeasure with the account, and he offered Sweeney $5,000 to shut it down. Sweeney refused, and he instead asked for $50,000 and a Tesla car.

The decision to allow Sweeney to track Musk’s jet on Threads is likely to be seen as a victory for Sweeney, and it could also be seen as a way for Meta to needle Musk. Threads is a new app, and it is still in its early stages of development. The app is similar to Twitter, and it is rumored that Meta is hoping to compete with Twitter in the social media space.

The decision to allow Sweeney to track Musk’s jet could also be seen as a way for Meta to defend itself against a lawsuit filed by Twitter. Twitter is suing Meta, alleging that Meta copied Twitter’s app and recruited former Twitter employees to develop Threads. Musk has responded to the lawsuit by saying that “competition is fine, cheating is not.”

The decision to allow Sweeney to track Musk’s jet is a significant development in the rivalry between Zuckerberg and Musk. It remains to be seen how Musk will respond to the decision, but it is clear that the rivalry between the two tech billionaires is only going to heat up in the months to come.