The bad blood between Musk and Zuckerberg began with a bang

Published

2 years ago

June 22, 2023

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Let’s get ready to rumble — The bad blood between Musk and Zuckerberg began with a bang “I’m deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX’s launch failure destroyed our satellite.”

Eric Berger – Jun 22, 2023 2:49 pm UTC Enlarge / Musk versus Zuckerberg in a cage match? Probably not.Aurich Lawson | Getty Images ( David Paul Morris | Nathan Laine) reader comments 26 with

The Internet is aflame this morning with the prospect of a cage match between two of the tech industry’s most prominent and controversial leaders. Ready to rumble in the red corner is Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. And in the blue corner, we have the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg.

As the BBC and multiple other outlets have confirmed, Zuckerberg was entirely serious when he accepted Musk’s offer of a cage match by saying “send me location.” On Wednesday evening, Musk then replied with “Vegas Octagon.” This was a reference to the fenced-in area used for Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts in Las Vegas.

Given the humorous nature of Musk’s other responses to the proposed fight, such as “I have this great move that I call ‘The Walrus’, where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing,” it seems probable that he is not overly serious. While Musk has the definite advantage in size, he is 12 years older than Zuckerberg, and the Facebook founder frequently trains in mixed-martial arts.

Nonetheless, the feud between the two tech billionaires is absolutely legitimate. And what most of the coverage of this “cage match” exchange has missed is the origin of the dispute. It came nearly seven years ago, when Facebook leased part of the bandwidth on an Israeli-build satellite, Amos-6. Zuckerberg intended for this bandwidth to provide some areas of Africa with Internet access to Facebook. Starts with a rocket

This $200 million satellite was due to launch on a Falcon 9 rocket in early September, 2016. On the morning of September 1, to save a single day in the pre-launch preparation process, SpaceX had already affixed the satellite atop a Falcon 9 rocket ahead of its static fire test. And the countdown was going smoothly, until it wasn’t. Completely out of the blue, the rocket exploded violently, showering pieces of the vehicle into the swamplands for miles around. The satellite swan-dived to the ground, a total, fiery loss. Advertisement

The Amos-6 accidentknown internally at SpaceX as “Flight 29″was a wrenching failure for a launch company. With the destruction of the Space Launch Complex-40 pad, SpaceX had no other pads in service at the time, and it had no rockets to launch. Additionally, it was the company’s second Falcon 9 failure in 15 months.

Musk was sleeping at his home in Los Angeles at the time of the accident. He awoke to the news of the failure and arrived at the SpaceX factory in Hawthorne, California, about the same time that Zuckerberg took to Facebook to vent his frustrations.

“As I’m here in Africa, I’m deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX’s launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent,” Zuckerberg wrote.

This was not well received at SpaceX, where employees were distraught and pulling themselves together to begin their second failure investigation in a little more than a year. The sentiment shared by Musk, the company’s president, Gwynne Shotwell, and others was essentially that Zuckerberg was an “asshole” for what he had written, and when he had done so. Delete Facebook

The emerging feud took another step forward a couple of years later, when Musk deleted the Facebook pages for SpaceX and Tesla in the midst of the ongoing Cambridge Analytica scandal. This was in March 2018, when it was revealed that a British data firm that contracted with the Donald Trump presidential campaign had retained private data from 50 million Facebook users despite claiming to have deleted it.

Essentially, Musk piled onto the “Delete Facebook” movement, saying he”didnt realize” that SpaceX even had a Facebook page and that Teslas “looked lame anyway.” The two pages were promptly taken down.

The tensions between the two billionaires have ratcheted up over the last year as Musk began his adventures in Twitterland as a social media overlord. This brought him into direct competition with Facebook. Zuckerberg has responded by saying Facebook is working on its own version of a service like Twitter. reader comments 26 with Eric Berger Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to wonky NASA policy, and author of the book Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston. Advertisement Channel Ars Technica ← Previous story Next story → Related Stories Today on Ars

Entertainment

Tomorrowland: ‘Devastating’ blaze destroys main stage at major festival – two days before it was due to begin

Published

55 mins ago

July 17, 2025

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Tomorrowland: 'Devastating' blaze destroys main stage at major festival - two days before it was due to begin

A huge fire has destroyed the main stage of a major festival in Belgium – two days before it was due to begin.

Tomorrowland is a dance music event as big as Glastonbury – and David Guetta was due to perform.

Footage showed flames and thick plumes of black smoke engulfing the stage and spreading to nearby woodland on Wednesday.

The annual festival in the town of Boom, north of Brussels, is one of the biggest in Europe and attracts about 400,000 people over two consecutive weekends.

It is famous for its immersive and elaborate designs and attracts big names within dance music – including Guetta, best known for tracks When Love Takes Over and Titanium.

Dutch DJs Martin Garrix and Charlotte de Witte were also due to perform, along with the likes of Swedish House Mafia, Eric Prydz and Alok.

The festival’s website described the creative elements which went into the elaborate main stage.

The theme, described as Orbyz, was “set in a magical universe made entirely out of ice” and “full of mythical creatures”.

Organisers said no one was injured in the blaze but confirmed “our beloved main stage has been severely damaged”, adding they were “devastated”.

Spokesperson Debby Wilmsen added: “We received some truly terrible news today. A fire broke out on the Tomorrowland site … and our main stage was essentially destroyed there, which is truly awful.

“That’s a stage that took years to build, with so much love and passion. So I think a lot of people are devastated.”

Despite the fire, Tomorrowland organisers said they were still expecting 38,000 festivalgoers at DreamVille, the event’s campsite.

Politics

PM criticised over ‘appalling’ decision to suspend four Labour MPs

Published

55 mins ago

July 17, 2025

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Starmer suspends four Labour MPs for breaches of party discipline

Sir Keir Starmer has suspended four MPs for repeated breaches of party discipline.

Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff, Neil Duncan-Jordan and Rachael Maskell have lost the whip, meaning they are no longer part of Labour’s parliamentary party and will sit as independent MPs.

The suspension is indefinite pending a review.

Three other MPs have had their trade envoy roles removed: Rosena Allin Khan, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammed Yasin.

Politics latest: Suspended MPs defend their voting record

All seven had voted against the government’s welfare reforms earlier this month. However, it is understood this is not the only reason behind the decision, with sources citing “repeated breaches of party discipline”.

More than 100 MPs had initially rebelled against the plan to cut personal independent payments (PIP). Ultimately, 47 voted against the bill’s third reading, after it was watered down significantly in the face of defeat.

Ms Maskell was one of the lead rebels in the welfare revolt, and has more recently called for a wealth tax to fund the U-turn.

The York Central MP has spoken out against the government on a number of other occasions since the election, including on winter fuel and cuts to overseas aid.

Confirming the suspension, Ms Maskell told Sky News that she “doesn’t see herself as a rebel” but “somebody that is prepared to fulfil (her) role here of holding the executive to account and speaking truth to power”.

She stopped short of criticising the decision, saying: “I hold my hand out to the prime minister and hope he takes that and wants to reach back because I think it’s really important that we work together.”

Ms Maskell was first elected in 2015, while the other suspended MPs were newly elected last year.

Mr Hinchliff, the MP for North East Hertfordshire, has proposed a series of amendments to the flagship planning and infrastructure bill criticising the government’s approach.

Mr Duncan-Jordan, the MP for Poole, led a rebellion against the cut to the winter fuel payments while Alloa and Grangemouth MP Mr Leishman has been critical of the government’s position on Gaza.

Suspended Labour MPs clearly hit a nerve with Starmer

Tamara Cohen

Political correspondent

@tamcohen

After a tricky few weeks for the government, in which backbenchers overturned plans to cut back welfare spending, now a heavy hand to get the party into line.

All four suspended MPs appear to be surprised – and upset.

Three more have lost plum roles as trade envoys – all on the left of the party.

All were active in the rebellion against the government’s welfare reforms, and voted against the changes even after a series of U-turns – but were among 47 Labour MPs who did so.

When MPs were told after the welfare vote that Number 10 was “fully committed to engaging with parliamentarians”, this was not what they were expecting.

We’re told the reasons for these particular suspensions go wider – over “persistent breaches of party discipline” – although most are not high profile.

In the scheme of things, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell rebelled against the Labour whip hundreds of times under New Labour, without being suspended.

But these MPs’ pointed criticism of the Starmer strategy has clearly hit a nerve.

Read Tamara’s analysis in full here

‘Couldn’t support making people poorer’

Mr Duncan-Jordan told Sky News that he understood speaking out against benefit cuts would “come at a cost” but said he “couldn’t support making disabled people poorer”.

Mr Leishman echoed that sentiment, saying: “I firmly believe that it is not my duty as an MP to make people poorer, especially those that have suffered because of austerity and its dire consequences.”

Both said they remain committed to the Labour Party and its values, suggesting they have no plans to join the new party being set up by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and ousted MP Zarah Sultana.

Similarly Mr Hinchliff said in a brief statement: “I remain proud to have been elected as a Labour MP and I hope in time to return to the Labour benches.”

The suspensions will be seen as an attempt to restore discipline ahead of the summer recess following a number of rebellions that has forced the government into U-turns.

As well as watering down the welfare bill, some cuts to the winter fuel payment have been reversed, leaving Chancellor Rachel Reeves with a fiscal blackhole to fill.

However, the move risks creating further divisions with a number of Labour MPs criticising the decision.

Starmer ‘rolling out the carpet to Reform’

Ian Byrne, Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, said he was “appalled” by the suspensions as he and 44 others voted against welfare cuts.

He said this isn’t the first time the Starmer leadership has “punished MPs for standing up for what’s right”, as he and six others were suspended last year for voting against the two-child benefit cap.

“These decisions don’t show strength. They are damaging Labour’s support and risk rolling out the red carpet for Reform,” he added.

Richard Burgon, who was also temporarily suspended in the two-child benefit cap revolt, said he had hoped the leadership would take a different approach to backbenchers.

“Sadly, it isn’t yet doing so. To help stop a Reform government, it really must do so,” he said.

Jon Trickett, Labour MP for Normanton and Hemsworth, said “it’s not a sin to stand up for the poor and disabled”, adding: “Solidarity with the suspended four.”

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