While for the most part, the war of words between the tech titans has remained professional, Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook have also shared a barrage of attacks towards each other. During an interview in 2018 in the midst of Facebook’s notorious Cambridge Analytica scandal, Cook was asked how he would lead Apple if it were to face a similar crisis. Cook responded by ruling the hypothetical situation out of the question, saying Apple would not be in the situation Facebook was in, thanks to its differing stance on privacy and user data. Zuckerberg shot back, calling Cook’s comments on TV “extremely glib” and “not at all aligned with the truth.”

Zuckerberg, outraged by Cook’s comments and public influence on Facebook’s reputation, reportedly told internal aides and team members that Facebook needs to “inflict pain” on Apple, according to sources who spoke on anonymity to The Wall Street Journal. Last month, during the company’s earnings, call Zuckerberg called Apple an increasingly bigger threat to Facebook and accused the Cupertino tech giant of using its platforms to interfere with how Facebook operates its own apps.

The day after the public comments, Cook responded indirectly in a speech during the Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection conference where he condemned Facebook and implied that its business model of maximizing engagement leads to division and violence. During the same speech, Cook censured Facebook’s potential role in the January 6 Capitol riot, blaming the social media company’s algorithms for spreading conspiracy theories…

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