Elon Musk says Instagram is for girls

Elon Musk is no stranger to strong and debatable statements. His latest is that Instagram is a platform "for girls".

In Short

• Elon Musk calls Instagram a platform for “for girls”
• Musk claims his own X is more transparent than rival platforms
• He says the other companies manipulate feed recommendations

If there is one social media platform Elon Musk seems to genuinely love, it is X. After all, he bought it in 2022, then called Twitter, and rebranded it. Everything else, at least according to Musk, either feels less relevant or simply not built for what he sees as “serious” conversations and following important topics. His latest in the list of all the controversial and strong statements that he has made is calling Instagram a platform for girls.

The remark came while Musk was replying to a viral thread discussing how people’s social media habits can supposedly reveal different “phases” of life. The original posts joked about behaviours like posting thirst traps, which is sexually-suggestive content, uploading endless stories, or sharing home-cooked meals and sourdough pictures.
Musk jumped into the conversation with a short but instantly viral comment: “Instagram is for girls.”

And to ensure that people really get his message, that they really understand what he was talking about, he made one more comment, getting deeper into what seemed like misogynistic thoughts. As reactions poured in, he followed up with another post saying: “Sometimes grown men send me their Instagram profiles and I’m like are you transitioning or what?”

But why? The short answer is because Elon Musk can and Elon Musk often does. He loves to rage-bait social media users, and it is possible that his latest comments are an exercise in that.
But there are a couple of other aspects to it as well. Musk, at least in his social media posts, comes across as someone who seems to have misogynistic views around gender. He has often criticised the practice of “transitioning”, which is gender change. And he seems to associate certain content with “girls”, often deeming it unserious, gossipy and frivolous. This is also the kind of content that is most popular on Instagram.

But behind the humour and controversial opinion, Musk is also doing something he often does, promoting X by taking digs at rival platforms.

Around the same time when he made Gram-for-girls remarks, Musk replied to another post discussing recommendation algorithms and social media feeds, claiming that “Only X is open, the other social media companies manipulate the results behind closed doors.”

And this is also not the first time Musk has publicly targeted Meta-owned platforms in particular. Given his not-so-friendly relationship with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Musk has often criticised the company’s apps and services. Just a few weeks ago, Musk took aim at WhatsApp, posting: “Can’t trust WhatsApp.” He also suggested that users should shift towards X for more secure audio and video calls.

- Ends