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Elon Musk compares Mark Zuckerberg to the Sun King in hilarious 'Zuckerberg the 14th' troll

Meta's share ownership structure "will have Mark Zuckerberg the 14th still controlling those entities,' Musk said at TED 2022

Elon Musk accused Mark Zuckerberg of exercising too much control on platforms owned by him and called him 'Zuckerberg the 14th' - an apparent reference to the infamous Louis XIV aka Sun King. Speaking at TED 2022 in Vancouver, the 50-year-old investor insisted that his plan to acquire Twitter is not a way to make money, but rather an effort to make it inclusive and protect freedom of speech.

Musk added that he wanted to make the social media platform more open, not more restricted. "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. Like, literally. We won't have that at Twitter," Musk mocked Zuckerberg.

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Musk said he wants to keep maximum number of shareholders within Twitter, rather than dominating it himself. He currently owns 9.1% of Twitter. On the other hand, Zuckerberg owns 12.8% of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Musk and Zuckerberg have a long history, with both having taken digs at the other.

"If in doubt, let the speech exist. If it's a gray area, I would say let the tweet exist," Musk said while talking about censorship of certain topics and tweets. "I'm not saying that I have all the answers here, but I do think that we want to be just very reluctant to delete things. And just be very cautious with permanent bans. Timeouts, I think, are better than permanent bans," he added. Musk also admitted that he's not sure if he would be able to acquire Twitter, despite his plans.

During a staff meeting, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal told employees that the company was still evaluating Musk's $43 billion offer to buy the company. According to The Verge, the 37-year-old held a 25-minute Q&A session with employees and addressed their questions. He didn't specify when the board would respond to Musk's offer, but stated that they would follow a "rigorous process" and make a decision "in the best interest of our shareholders."

"I made an offer," Musk tweeted on April 14, followed by, "Will endeavor to keep as many shareholders in privatized Twitter as allowed by law." Previously, he had tweeted, "Most of these 'top' accounts tweet rarely and post very little content. Is Twitter dying?" This was followed by, "For example, @taylorswift13 hasn't posted anything in 3 months, and @justinbieber only posted once this entire year."

Recently, it was also announced that Musk was no longer the largest shareholder in Twitter after asset manager Vanguard Group increased its stake and overtook him. Vanguard now owns 10.3% of Twitter, while Musk continues to own 9.1% of the company. Though he is no longer the largest shareholder, Musk is still the largest individual shareholder of Twitter.