Into Elon Musk’s twitter chaos steps his arch-rival Mark Zuckerburg intent on launching a tweeting challenger in the form of ‘Threads’ this Thursday. Described as a ‘text-based conversation app… where communities come together’, it is linked to Instagram, which has 500 million daily users worldwide. Experts say it could be the biggest threat that Musk has faced so far. It has been nicknamed the ‘Twitter-killer.’
Just what we need – more social media shriek-arenas.
The launch chart, if it sticks to this Thursday, is reasonably OK in effectiveness terms with a half Grand Sextile from Mercury opposition Pluto (= fanatical and divisive discussion and disinformation) and that ties in by sextile/trine to Uranus and Neptune. There’s also a steady Sun trine Saturn sextile a money-making Jupiter in Taurus; plus an excitable, mouthy Venus Mars in Taurus square Uranus.
Twitter, 21 March 2006, was always aiming for major problems with a disempowering and undermining tr Neptune square its Pluto this year as well as a stuck Solar Arc Pluto square the Midheaven (assuming 1.02pm start time); with worse approaching when tr Neptune Saturn move into Aries in 2025 to conjunct the Twitter Aries Sun which won’t be good commercially or practically. At the same time the Solar Arc Uranus will conjunct the Twitter Sun for a forced jolting change.
The two billionaires are both, not surprisingly, strong personalities. Musk’s Pluto is trine and his Mars in Aquarius is square MK’s Taurus Sun for a clash of Titans. MK’s Mars (Moon), Saturn and Pluto in Scorpio make him virtually immoveable.
Their relationship chart looks rattled at the moment with tr Uranus square the composite Saturn and this year’s Eclipses spotlight the bitter, power-struggling, hostile-dislike composite Mars square Pluto. There will be increasing chill over their chemistry in 2024 as tr Saturn squares the composite Neptune and Sun.
Add ON: Threads launched according to reports at 12am BST today which puts flashy, ambitious/competitive Mars in Leo on the Midheaven conjunct Venus and square a 7th house ‘unneighbourly’ and uncooperative Uranus. The Mars is on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Pluto sextile Neptune – certainly ambitious and then some, but also headstrong and not always subtle or tactful. Though there is also a well-knit together Cancer Sun in the communicative and international 9th house trine Saturn sextile Jupiter in Taurus. Plus a fanatical, argumentative Mercury opposition Pluto.
It’ll have a few jolts and jangles as tr Uranus squares the Venus from this August and then the Mars in 2024/25.
I’m excited about Threads and I hope this new social media platform works out. I’ll be signing up soon. I suppose I’ve always been a bit of a social media wonk.
I joined Open Diary back in 2000, LiveJournal back in 2001, and MySpace back in 2005. For years, Open Diary and MySpace were my favorite platforms because we could design the layout of our profiles, add music, and add tons of graphics – all with the use of HTML codes.
Since I’m very knowledgeable in HTML and Photoshop, I was able to create my own banners, add effects to graphics, and use some of the most complex HTML codes on the internet. My Open Diary and MySpace accounts were always the best. In fact, my layouts for Open Diary and MySpace were so good, I had friends and friends of friends contacting me asking if I would design their pages for them (they even offered to pay me).
By the end of the 2000s, Open Diary and MySpace fell into decline….so, I joined Facebook in 2008. I’ve been with Facebook ever since…and I like it because I can control which content I want to be exposed to and because only my friends (not total strangers and trolls) can comment on my posts.
Last but not least, I eventually (and reluctantly) decided to join Twitter in 2022…and then deleted my account because of all the right-wing trolls…and then I decided to re-join Twitter earlier this year….only because I wanted to keep up with astrologers, academics, and activists I follow…and to keep up with what’s happening in Ukraine, Haiti, Kurdistan, and a few other nations I care about.
I will say Twitter is definitely my least favorite social media platform. I had considered paying the $8 a month so I could take advantage of more features. However, after I noticed that Twitter has become an even bigger far-right cesspool since Elon Musk has taken over, I had second thoughts. I have reported a number of tweets and accounts of people using racial slurs, calling for nations to be “nuked,” posting photos of assault weapons, making threats of physical violence towards activists and politicians, etc. All of which clearly violate Twitter rules. Despite all if this, many of these accounts have yet to be locked or suspended.
So, I am hoping Threads will prove itself to be a better platform. I’m also hoping it will be a platform that appeals to more sensible, liberal-minded people.
Interesting stuff Chris – sounds like you’ve made social media work for you. Good to hear an alternative perspective on the prospects for Threads.
Jane’s comment below “Re Zuckerberg – I strongly suspect he is neurodiverse, as is Bill Gates himself. Also, I haven’t really looked at his obsession with Emperor Augustus – has Augustus “Make haste slowly”, replaced Zuck’s earlier “move fast and break things”?”
Not really looked at his chart beyond the obvious Taurus/Scorpio stuff but he has 8 planets in earth.
The Aries Mercury and Sag Uranus on the SN might be where “move fast and break things” comes from but otherwise it’s hard to see. When I first learned astrology I read that one’s MC is what you aspire to be. So, with his Gemini MC, that would fit. But therefore it’s the image he wants to project whereas for the most part he is just a plodder! Especially as he also has a detailed Virgo ASC.
Noting he has no planets in Air, only the Gemini south node and MC. That’s quite surprising given how connected to air, social media is. Along with the inconjuct/quincunx from his Scorpio Pluto to Aries Mercury and the Saturn-Moon – I think there are explanations for possible neurodiversity.
(FWIW Idemon mentions in one of his books that lack of planets in a sign usually gives the native a preoccupation with trying to understand the missing element).
Interesting to read Elon Musk is threatening legal action against Threads for stealing the IP. I hadn’t realised, but it’s no surprise, that Meta had hired a bunch of ex-Twitter staff for its development. Presumably those are the staff he forced out last year.
Beyond Musk’s karma, the IP case itself is something to consider. The whole of social media/big tech has been based around copying anything successful initiated by another firm to try and nullify the advantage. It also makes everything seem relatively homogenous. I’m not sure whether this is Pluto in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces or what.
What made Facebook (and Twitter) work initially was a high volume of people joining out of curiosity. I’m not sure how that happens this time. We know what those platforms are and it’s hard to imagine any rational person who has been involved with Facebook wanting to sign up for another Zuckerberg product. For a social media site (or any online platform) to work it needs a constant turnover of new content from different and interesting voices. Without those it dies.
The launch chart looks more eye rolling with that Leo mars/venus midheaven (especially as Venus is now in its retrograde). Reminds me of how Facebook was originally lots of people showing off their lunches and other great stuff they’d done. And Pisces neptune in 5th sort of reinforces that illusionary glamour.
The Uranus Taurus in descendant also hints at people’s involvement being all about them with the social niceties of a Like for other peoples stuff but no real interest or connection. Arguably sharing other people’s jokes and posts could be a shadow Taurus trait – seeing their stuff as your own.
I wonder if the 9th house Cancer Sun/Mercury might see people being a little more select in who they Friend and share info with.
Will it end up Threadbare, I wonder?
Very good!
I hadn’t realised they’ve prompted the Instagram population with easy signup. That might gain it some traction I guess.
The real question is whether they can get the Twitter mob to make the move? I guess as Marjorie points out the transit Neptune square Pluto is potential dissolve of power. Certainly the transit has been playing out since Musk took over – who himself has Pluto at 27Virgo and therefore exactly square Twitter’s Pluto and being opposed by transiting Neptune.
Very interesting GD, and good joke SuHu! Zuckerberg is having a Pluto transit square his natal Mercury 29 Aries, which in turn opposes his natal Pluto, 00 Scorpio, for the generational Pluto square Pluto transit. So is Threads a manifestation, in part at least, of this? Maybe it points to future issues with ‘secrets’ around collecting data. Threads has a t-square of the money-making Taurus/Scorpio Nodes with subversive Black Moon Lilith, and when Pluto hits exactly from 1 Aquarius that could be tricky.
The Nodes are interesting too, since they can represent associations, groups of people, and so on. Tr Nodes will soon reach Zuck’s Mercury in Aries, and the Grand Cardinal Cross of July is there too. The S Node is currently on his natal Pluto, so is there something of the past (Facebook?) for him in this project? I imagine he might like to revisit the astonishing success of his youth, and possibly S Node with Pluto reminds him of past glories? Not really about money, more about winning and control. There seems to be rather a lot of Pluto!
Tr Saturn in Pisces is squaring his own natal Nodes in Gemini/Sagittarius now, making for what? Highlighting his longlasting associations, working alliances, serious connections? Clearly, that Saturn is part of Threads launch chart, so another manifestation of Zuck’s transits. The Zuck/Musk composite Mercury in Gemini (very tweety!) also aligns with this pattern.
The name Threads reminds me of ancient myths, and Ariadne helping Theseus kill the Minotaur by giving him a thread to guide him when he escaped the Cretan labyrinth. Quite appropriate for a Taurean person like Zuckerberg. But which role will he play in the end?
Interesting point about the threads and the minotaur – have you read Richard Idemon’s The Magic Thread where he talks about the thread of someone’s chart being the thing that if you follow it can take you to the centre of who you are.
Zuckerberg reminds me of the younger Bill Gates who was a ruthless Scorpio Sun (plus Leo Jupiter-Pluto). Both are Saturn in Scorpio in aspect to Venus. Maybe I’m just believing the publicity, but I think Bill managed to get his life onto a more philanthropic track through marriage and children with Melinda. Zuckerberg has recently been running 5Ks and doing other athletic pursuits so maybe there is some change occurring – maybe that’s just Saturn through his 6th. But transiting Uranus has been all over his chart in the last year with the Sun still to be hit. As a tech guy, maybe he is sensitive to its transits. I’d say Taurus is a sign that has to be jolted to make changes. Really I find it hard to imagine Zuckerberg evolving though.
Ooh! Thanks for the book suggestion GD. I haven’t read it, but will put on my list.
Agree re Taurus, since I know and love quite a few of them. The ones with more mutable planets natally seem quite flexible. However, they do plant their hooves in the earth, and refuse to budge in a most characteristic way. Other fixed signs are stubborn, but not quite the same.
Re Zuckerberg – I strongly suspect he is neurodiverse, as is Bill Gates himself. Also, I haven’t really looked at his obsession with Emperor Augustus – has Augustus “Make haste slowly”, replaced Zuck’s earlier “move fast and break things”?
Meanwhile, will Threads weave a tangled web, or some other sort of yarn?
The more blocks and impediments there are to social media the better off we will all be. I am cheering the fact Twitter is narrowing its own audience! Anyone who wants to read can verify themselves and obtain an account…although why anyone would want to participate in the general tumult who knows? filling empty hours?
Emergency alerts are available through FEMA WEAs and similar worldwide.
Soc med should be restricted to over 18s for starters.
Earlier in the week, Twitter became private, so people without a Twitter account can’t read tweets. I myself don’t have a Twitter account, but I occasionally do like to read Twitter if something goes viral.
One of the downsides of Twitter being account only, Non-users can’t get updates if there is an emergency i.e. flood, earthquake.
Yes, Aaron, me too. No account, but I like my local area’s news Twitter, plus several of the wonderful art and vintage photography accounts – no comments to read! The police also use Twitter to make announcements, as does my local council. What was it Musk said about a “town square” or whatever, where people exchange news and gossip etc? Now there’s a big wall and no entry signs everywhere. Perhaps it will change back again.
Must say these “shriek arenas” are also useful, sometimes. Our new rightwing coalition Government has been in hot water since taking office because of some of the Finns party Ministers’ extreme right tweet/social media history. The most apparent case, Industry Minister Vilhelm Junnila already resigned for abundant material found on him joking on Holocaust. Interior Minister Mari Rantanen may be able to hold her job after assuring she doesn’t, as implied by her Twitter feed, believe in Great Replacement theory. But Foreign Trade Minister Ville Tavio, who’ve alluded to the theory several times from pulpit as a MP and did post an extremely misogynist tweet on Ursula von der Leyen as late as last November, only some months before elections, when victory of von der Leyen’s sister party, Kokoomus, already seemed secure, and the only decision leader Petteri Orpo had to make was choosing coalition members.
Intriguing, Solaia.
It will indeed be challenging for politicians and public figures to avoid the dreaded taint by association.
Imagine being pilloried for something that can only be implied or alluded? They must have very few flaws generally, if their opposition can only find such weak associations.
An interview with the multi cancelled (and consistently outrageous) Roseanne was recently deleted from u tube due to referencing the Holocaust, it was soon reposted in its entirety on twitter. Elon enclosed it in a tweet that stated comedy was legal on twitter.
Shriek arenas –
Haven’t Musk and Zuck dared each other to a boxing match?
Somebody had suggested that they should have it in the Colosseum in Rome, which is an awesome idea.
@ Unmystic Mom,
Not a boxing match; they challenged each other to a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) cage fight. Apparently, Mark Zuckerburg has a background in MMA while Elon Musk doesn’t.
I have a sneaking suspicion this just a colossal publicity stunt. It’s hard to imagine something like this occurring between the two of them.