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Tweeting nasty now? Elon Musk calls Zuckerberg cuck and dares him to do dick measuring contest

The war of words between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg takes a new turn as Twitter-competitor Threads gets more users each day. So much so that Musk is getting a little nasty as he called Zuckerberg a “cuck” on Sunday.

Elon Musk calls Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg a “cuck”.
Musk is apparently angry at Zuckerberg because Meta has launched Threads.
Threads is a Twitter-competitor and is rapidly gaining users.

The war of words between Twitter owner Elon Musk and Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is heating up, even if the possibility of a UFC-like fight between the two tech CEOs stays out of the window. It all started when Meta unveiled its highly anticipated Twitter rival, “Threads, an Instagram” app, last week. Since then, both companies and their leaders have been pulling out all the stops to prove which platform reigns supreme. Things are taking a nastier turn as Musk throws shade at Zuckerberg, going so far as to call him a “cuck” and even joking about a “literal dick-measuring contest.”

We are not sure what really prompted Musk to call Zuckerberg a “cuck”, a derogatory insult with sexual connotations, but chances are that Threads, a Twitter rival by Zuckerberg, has something to do with it. Musk has been attacking his fellow billionaire ever since Zuckerberg launched Threads, an app that has a design and functionality similar to that of Twitter.

Less than a week after its debut, Threads has hit 100 million downloads. In the meantime, Twitter engagement has started tanking, as per Cloudflare, a company that tracks and provides security services to other websites.

Amid this news, a Threads user (Wendys) wrote that Zuckerberg should go to space to “really make him mad,” a reference to Elon Musk’s SpaceX work to take people to Mars and other space ventures. The Meta chief responded to the post with a laughing emoji.

A screenshot of the exchange was later shared on Twitter by a user who accused Zuckerberg of protecting “brand speech” while Musk “protects free speech.”

The tweet caught Musk’s attention, prompting a four-word response from the tech billionaire. Musk wrote, “Zuck is a cuck.”

The word is short for cuckold, which typically means a man with a sexually unfaithful wife or someone who willingly tolerates an unfaithful partner or even helps their partner sleep with others. Part of slang and sexually-loaded insults, “cuck” is often thrown around by people to question the morals or “manliness” of others.

However, colloquially, the word has several meanings. Cuck can be used by someone incapable of doing anything, which might fit the context of the Musk-Zuckerberg jibe. Similarly, Musk’s “literal dick-measuring contest” may mean who is more powerful.

Given that the word “cuck” is clearly an insult, a lot of people commented on Musk’s tweet. Many initially thought that the tweet was from some parody account, although it wasn’t. Ian Bremmer, a prominent writer and political scientist, quoted Musk and drew the attention of Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino. He wrote, “Hey @lindayacc can you help us.”

on the part of Musk became clear a few hours later. When a fake Zuckerberg screenshot talking about “size” and “whose is bigger” started circulating, something again clicked in Musk’s mind. He tweeted again, replying to his “cuck” tweet, “I propose a literal dick measuring contest.”

Twitter threatens to sue Meta

Meanwhile, Twitter has threatened Meta over Threads being developed by former Twitter employees. In a letter to Zuckerberg last week, Twitter stated that the company hired former Twitter employees with sensitive company information. The letter suggests this helped Meta to build its Twitter alternate, Threads.

Meta denies these allegations and notes that the Threads team does not include any former Twitter employees.

Meta’s Threads offer similar micro-blogging functionalities as Twitter, though all users have the option to write and publish with up to 500 characters. Users can also reshare or retweet Threads posts, but there’s no option to send DMs. Threads also does not let users post stories, as the feature remains exclusive to Instagram and other Meta platforms.