On Elon Vs. Zuck, and Elon’s Use of Controversy to Maximize Media Attention

*Sigh*

Okay, let’s talk in regards to the Elon vs. Zuck fight.

As you’ll undoubtedly recall, back in June, X owner Elon Musk tweeted that he’d be “up for a cage match” with Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, in response to the news that Meta was planning to launch a brand new X rival app, ahead of the discharge of Threads. To the surprise of many, Zuckerberg, who’s been getting more into MMA of late, responded that Musk just needed to “Send Me Location”, implying that he was indeed up for an actual fight.

What’s ensued is a ridiculous back-and-forth between the 2, as Elon has used the potential bout as a method to grab more attention, and sure get more users to X in consequence.

Every week after this initial exchange, Musk claimed that there was “some probability” that the bout may very well be held within the Colosseum in Rome, and implied that he’d spoken to Italian officials about hosting the fight on the historic venue. Italy’s Ministry of Culture denied this.

Every week after that, Musk re-shared a picture of himself in training with MMA fighters.

Zuckerberg responded along with his own training image, also with UFC stars:

So each multi-billionaires were actually training, which looked as if it would suggest that the fight might actually occur. Then things went quiet for just a few weeks on the Elon v Musk front, as sense looked as if it would (briefly) prevail.

Things kicked up again last week, with Musk posting that he’s been “lifting weights throughout the day, preparing for the fight”. Elon then claimed that the fight can be live-streamed on X, with all proceeds going to charity, and further implied that solid arrangements were now in place.

But Zuckerberg quickly denied this, and has denied all of Musk’s various implications.

Elon has since clarified that he’ll likely need shoulder surgery before the fight, which can require months of recovery, which pretty clearly implies that each one of Musk’s various public statements on the potential fight have been a publicity stunt designed to drive more interest in his budding social media empire. Whether Musk plans to truly go ahead with the bout in any respect or not, he has known all along that he’s probably physically unable to participate, so really, it’s one other a part of the Elon circus, that he uses to eat up media attention, after which deflect that to his various business interests.

Which, regardless of how you are feeling in regards to the man, he’s clearly superb at. All along, in his tenure at Twitter/X, Musk has been in a position to keep getting attention, which has likely helped to prop up the platform’s numbers, and keep people coming back to the app.

There’s a reason why Tesla doesn’t pay for promoting, because Elon himself is such a lightning rod for the media that he can get his businesses mass media coverage without having to pay for it, which also aligns along with his cost-minimization management approach.

Essentially, as noted by Platformer’s Casey Newton, Elon uses business media’s established processes against them to realize mass coverage, by stretching the reality, straight-up lying, or simply coming up with outlandish comments that trigger a frenzy online.

As per Newton:

“It’s in the character of business journalism to assume that CEOs of public firms should not lying on a regular basis. And it’s in Musk’s nature to make frequent, daring pronouncements about his firms, politics, the character of consciousness, and so forth, all of that are irresistible to editors.”

Newton suggests that editors should employ a more skeptical approach, and query more of Musk’s outlandish claims, as a way to stop him from using the mainstream outlets, which he claims to despise, to maintain getting himself more attention.

Which is entirely correct. There’s seemingly no prospect that an Elon v Musk fight is definitely going to occur, yet even people inside his prolonged orbit are actually getting asked about it in their very own media interviews and coverage. Just this week, X CEO Linda Yaccarino and his ex-wife Grimes were each asked for his or her thoughts on the bout, giving more column space to Musk’s latest bid for attention, which is clearly working, on condition that I too am now writing about it.

But I’ve resisted covering it because of this. It’s not real, it’s not an actual thing, and Elon is just using this as the newest button to push to trigger the media hype cycle, and next week it’ll be another crazy thing, then one other the week after that.

On this sense, Elon does appear to have taken inspiration from the Trump book of media relations.

Various studies have shown that the one precious indicator of electoral success in social media metrics is mention volume, i.e. in case your name is getting discussed probably the most in social apps, you’re going to find yourself winning the election.

Sentiment, likes, followers, all of those have failed to supply any real indication of election outcomes, but pure mention volume has been a consistent indicator of success, as easy a metric because it may be.

On this context, it pays to be an attention seeker, it pays to be the one who says the things that get probably the most people talking, because that expanded discussion is usually all it’s good to occupy the general public consciousness, which then influences how they vote.

Elon appears to be taking the identical approach, as a way to keep his social media platform afloat, by reflecting attention back to his posts, which then sparks more in-app engagement.

From selling verification ticks, to letting previously banned users back within the app, to backing up COVID conspiracy theories, to promoting using LSD. Every time engagement appears to be waning, Elon just comes out with one other controversial comment or stance, and the media cycle kicks in to assist him out once more.  

The query then is whether or not he can keep saying and doing enough things to maintain getting attention, which so far he’s proven that he definitely can.   

Will that be enough to maintain X relevant? Will that be the thing that keeps tens of millions of users coming back to the app, even when a rival gains ground?

It’s hard to trust X’s reported usage numbers, given Elon’s aforementioned affinity for misinformation. But he claims that usage is rising, which might largely, at this stage, be a mirrored image of his attention-grabbing capability.