After Needling Twitter, Elon Musk Tags Mark Zuckerberg As A 'Monarch'

Days after badgering Twitter to accept his hostile takeover bid’s final offer, Elon Musk turns his guns on Mark Zuckerberg for his ironclad control of Meta, where he reigns as a “monarch” and could pass to his heirs full control of Facebook and Instagram, Grace Kay and Dominick Reuter reported for Business Insider.

Photo Insert: Musk and Zuckerberg have a longstanding feud. In 2016, Zuckerberg issued a public statement saying he was "deeply disappointed" in SpaceX after one of the company's rockets destroyed a Facebook satellite.

Musk claimed that his “take-ot-or-leave-it” offer for control of Twitter was “not about money” but for the benefit of “civilization” and “freedom of speech” for mankind, a strange claim for a multi-billionaire whose assets are mainly his shareholdings in Tesla, SpaceX and associated companies where he exercises full control through his nominees.

While he wants to “liberate” Twitter from the shackles of editorial control, Musk is anti-labor and would rather stage toy car races in Mars and fill the solar system with his wayward satellites, one of which destroyed Facebook’s very own and caused Chinese space station to change orbit, rather than satisfy the demands of his workers.

In an interview in Vancouver, British Columbia, Chris Anderson, asked Musk whether his status as the richest man and one of the platform's top influencers could pose a conflict of interest. Musk used the opportunity to take a swipe at Zuckerberg.

"As for media sort of ownership, I mean, you've got Mark Zuckerberg owning Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp, and with a share ownership structure that will have Mark Zuckerberg the 14th still controlling those entities," Musk said. "Like, literally," Musk added amid laughter from the audience.

"We won't have that at Twitter." Musk had been fined by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for profiting from his holdings using insider information and well-timed Twitter posts just as he was forced by China to apologize publicly for defective Tesla cars and the presence of covert cameras and software that Beijing said have been used to spy on military facilities.

German activists also continue to oppose the operations of his gigafactory in their country.

Musk's statement could be referring to a future long line of Zuckerberg descendants or could be a reference to King Louis XIV, who ruled France for over 72 years and is known as the longest-reigning monarch. Zuckerberg holds 55% of the company's voting shares — which means he essentially has complete veto power over other shareholders.

Meta has a dual-class stock structure that provides Zuckerberg, managers, and directors with supervoting power inasmuch as one of their shares is equivalent to 10 votes, while other shareholders are limited to one vote per share.

While Musk owns 17% of Tesla shares and doesn't have the same level of control of the company as Zuckerberg does with Meta, Tesla does have supermajority voting rules that require the approval of two-thirds of shares to pass major changes, providing Musk a level of veto power.

Musk and Zuckerberg have a longstanding feud. In 2016, Zuckerberg issued a public statement saying he was "deeply disappointed" in SpaceX after one of the company's rockets destroyed a Facebook satellite.

Musk has said Facebook gives him "the willies." Most recently, Musk criticized Facebook for how it handled the siege on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

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