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TechElon Musk

Elon Musk took an unprovoked stab at Instagram in response to a speech by Warren Buffett’s right-hand man

By
Alice Hearing
Alice Hearing
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By
Alice Hearing
Alice Hearing
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September 12, 2022, 7:24 AM ET
Elon Musk. SpaceX And T-Mobile Hold Joint Event In Texas
Elon Musk previously described Instagram as a “thirst trap” and said he never uses it.Michael Gonzalez—Getty Images

Elon Musk took a new stab at Instagram on Twitter, describing the platform as an “envy amplifier” as he doubled down on earlier criticism of the photo-sharing app. 

The Tesla CEO attacked the Meta platform on Sunday in response to a video shared on Twitter of Warren Buffett’s right-hand man, Charlie Munger, discussing the impact of greed and envy on the world at the Daily Journal Annual Meeting earlier this year. 

“The world is not driven by greed, it is driven by envy,” the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway said. “And so, the fact that everybody’s five times better off than they used to be, they take it for granted. All they think about is somebody else having more now, and it’s not fair that he should have it and they don’t.” 

Instagram is an envy amplifier

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 11, 2022

Musk’s seemingly unprovoked attack on Instagram comes as he prepares for a court battle with his usual social media of choice: Twitter.

The company has filed a lawsuit attempting to force him to complete his proposed $44 billion buyout of the platform. A trial is currently set for Oct. 17, despite Musk’s request to push it back. 

The entrepreneur had justified his push to cancel the deal on claims that Twitter has an enormous problem with fake and spam accounts. 

Musk used to think Insta was just a ‘thirst trap’

Musk’s criticism of Instagram comes on the heels of comments he made in August on the Full Send podcast, where he called the platform a “next-level thirst trap.”

On the episode, Musk revealed that he does have a private account, but has stopped using it after discovering he was wasting his time and taking too many selfies. Instead, he said that for whatever he wants to express, he can use Twitter. 

Back in 2018, Elon Musk said on an episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast that Instagram makes people seem better-looking and happier “than they really are.” 

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