To the UFC world, Mark Zuckerberg isn’t just the ‘Meta guy’ anymore. He’s the guy who got UFC boss Dana White a cushy seat at his corporate table. Yes, the same Zuckerberg who spars in his backyard and posts jiu-jitsu videos is now mixing it up with fight fans and political bigwigs alike. But let’s get to the real fight, the battle of the tech titans, Zuckerberg versus Musk.

In a twist few saw coming, Zuck recently took to the Joe Rogan Experience and, brace yourselves, praised Elon Musk. That’s right, praised him. “I think X and Twitter just did it better than us on fact-checking,” he said on JRE #2255, referring to Musk’s “community notes” system.

Now, if you’re doing a double take, you’re not alone. For years, Zuckerberg and Musk have been the tech world’s version of Tom and Jerry, sniping at each other over AI, rockets, and social media strategies. So what’s with this sudden lovefest? Zuckerberg’s confession wasn’t just a throwaway line, it was a complete 180. Meta is now ditching its fact-checking system and adopting Musk’s approach.

According to Zuckerberg, “The whole point of social media is giving people the ability to share what they want.” Oh, really? Because for years, Meta seemed more focused on what not to share.

The timing here is chef’s kiss perfect. Meta’s shift comes hot on the heels of some eyebrow-raising moves, a $1 million donation to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund and Dana White joining the Meta board. Now, we’re not saying this is all part of a grand strategy to butter up the free-speech crowd, but okay, that’s exactly what we’re saying.

And let’s not forget Zuckerberg’s recent ‘meta-morphosis.’ The person who once defended Meta’s heavy-handed moderation is now preaching the gospel of openness. Is this Zuckerberg finally embracing the spirit of free speech? Or is he just realizing that Musk’s ‘let the people decide’ shtick plays better in 2024?

The Elon Musk- Mark Zuckerberg showdown that never made it to the cage

Of course, no conversation about Zuckerberg giving Musk credit would be complete without revisiting their long and petty history. Remember when a SpaceX rocket blew up a Facebook satellite in 2016? That was the opening bell. Musk followed it up by deleting Tesla and SpaceX’s Facebook pages in 2018, calling the platform a ‘hot mess’. Zuckerberg fired back by labeling Musk’s AI warnings as ‘irresponsible’. And on and on it went.

So, don’t break out the olive branch just yet. This rivalry isn’t cooling off anytime soon. Because here’s the thing about modern tech moguls, they’re the philosophers of our age or at least they think they are. But their stances are about as stable as a house of cards in a wind tunnel. Zuckerberg’s sudden admiration for Musk’s fact-checking system feels less like a revelation and more like a strategic pivot. One minute he’s the champion of responsible moderation, and the next he’s waxing poetic about giving people what they want.

When pressed about Meta’s old fact-checking methods by Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg admitted they were riddled with “third-party fact-checkers.” He further added, “I think is just a better program, rather than having a small number of fact-checkers you get the whole community to weigh in. That’s a good sign to the community.. broad consensus. So you’re not using the fact check as a signal to show less you’re using the community note to provide real context and show additional information, so I think that’s better.”

In other words, they screwed up, so now they are copying the guy they’ve been roasting for years. So, what does all this mean for the future of social media? Is Mark Zuckerberg’s adoption of Musk’s model a sign of progress, or are we just swapping one set of problems for another? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!