Clash of the tech titans

The raging pandemic has sent shockwaves throughout the world as seismic shifts in the mode of thought and action are commonplace everywhere – from the religious pulpits to the courtrooms to the corridors of power to the boardrooms of technology powerhouses. Social media has also not been left untouched as proponents and distractors of social distancing battle it out. The world of technology likewise has its fair share of arguments with the latest battle-taking place between tech billionaires of Silicon Valley, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg on the easing down of lockdowns.

Musk and Zuckerberg have opposite views on the magnitude of the current crisis and the perceived gloomy prognosis it holds for the future. They both had sparred off in the past with Musk questioning Mark Zuckerberg's intelligence on artificial intelligence. Previously, Zuckerberg had taken a jibe on SpaceX's launch failure. It was Zuckerberg's 200 million dollar satellite, which exploded in a pre-launched test fire accident on one of Musk's rockets. Musk and Zuckerberg have also squared off on artificial intelligence, which Musk considers warry off while Zuckerberg characterized his claims as "pretty irresponsible".

The meltdown of Musk

Apart from naming his son with an unpronounceable name, (he should be more worried whether his son's name is valid under California State Law), Musk has made rounds in the news headlines for alarming reasons. Elon Musk, CEO of Musk, was recently embroiled in a controversy due to a series of tweets in which he directly hinted at easing down lockdowns calling the lockdowns itself  "fascist" restricting the freedom of people. Musk while acknowledging that those who stay at home should be free to do so, he calls restricting people to get out of their home as undemocratic. A series of "Free America" tweets followed right after.

Musk's company, Tesla had initially resisted efforts by California authorities to shut its plant in the Bay Area. Musk's ridiculous tweets are often riddled with conspiracy theories and in the beginning of the worldwide pandemics, he called the coronavirus panic dumb not paying a scintilla of attention to the number of cases and deaths in his own country, the United States, which appears to be the highest in the world. Despite Tesla, which alongside other tech companies making considerable profits, one still wonders what goes around in the mind of Musk.

This is not the first time Elon Musk, the real-life inspiration behind the central character, Tony Stark in Marvel's 2008 blockbuster, "Iron Man" has resorted to channelling his anger through a barrage of nonsensical tweets. Since the outbreak, Musk has been at the forefront of spearheading fake news through his Twitter handle such as intentional inflating of cases of deaths, comparing the outbreak to a common cold, and promoting a widely discredited paper of pseudoscience on the benefits of chloroquine.

Apart from this, he shared highly ingenious posts and videos of medical misinformation, which were later deleted by other social media handles such as YouTube although Musk still chose to have it, stay. Elon Musk's bizarre mood swings do not stop there. On Thursday's podcast with Joe Rogan, Musk calledcoronavirus lockdowns a "fundamental violation of the US Constitution" and questioned their arguments if called before the Supreme Court. Musk feels that the tag of a billionaire has in recent years began to have a negative tint to it and therefore, decided to sell off his two houses.

Redemption for Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg, on the other hand, a few days after Musk's tirade, has supported the extension of the lockdowns saying that while the economic activities are hampered by the current lockdown, easing down lockdowns does not bear well for the future in the long run. Mark Zuckerberg has warned against easing down of the lockdowns given the risk it poses to the future.

Zuckerberg's foundation with his wife, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced it would give $13.6 million to fund a nine-month research project to understand the spread of coronavirus in the Bay Area, where both the Facebook office and his homes are located.

Zuckerberg has faced the onslaught of the "techlash" over the last two years as many politicians and a rising suspicious public of sizeable numbers feeling that the world's largest social media is too influential and is equally damaging to society given the untrammelled spread of fake news and hate speech that travels through the algorithms of social media.

Recalling Zuckerberg's apology to Congress over the leaking of private information of millions of FB users and its subsequent shady roles in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, the way he and his company work during this pandemic might be his moment of salvation and redemption. Facebook has largely put itself as the widely used medium of communication roping in 2.89 billion users and counting during this global crisis. Health and safety tips from the World Health Organization are now broadcasted on all our newsfeeds.

Coronavirus pandemic might be Zuckerberg's moment of redemption to right the wrongs done by his company and rise to the occasion regaining the trust of his critics and long lost fans as well. With most of the tech giants funnelling their wealth in this gruesome fight against a powerful enemy such as Covid-19, this is a time of deep caution not ludicrous decision making. Feuds like these are worth billions but it needs to be remembered that like always, it is the workers and the consumers, after all, pay the price.