Elon Musk Says 'Instagram Is for Girls,' Reigniting Meta Feud

On October 1, Elon Musk replied to a post by venture capital firm Geiger Capital, which had announced it "officially deleted Instagram," calling it "an inherently female app" with "zero benefit." Musk's full reply: "Instagram is for girls." The remark echoes a nearly identical comment Musk made in May during a viral discussion of social media habits, when he also mocked men who send him links to their Instagram profiles. The exchange drew thousands of reactions on X, with critics calling the characterization sexist and others treating it as a joke. Musk offered no evidence for the claim. Instagram's global user base is roughly evenly split, with men accounting for about 52 to 53 percent of users depending on the dataset. The jab lands amid Musk's long-running rivalry with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which intensified after Meta launched Threads in July 2023 as a direct competitor to X.