In an attempt to keep to his word, Elon Musk has taken down the Space X and Tesla Inc. pages from Facebook. The pages linked to the electric car company which had millions of followers are no longer accessible.
Musk’s move to take down these pages were in response to some Twitter posts, including one from Brian Acton, the co-founder of Facebook owned WhatsApp. Apparently, Acton’s tweet included #deletefacebook. “What’s Facebook?” Musk queried. Later on, a follower tweeted Musk that he should delete SpaceX’s Facebook page if Musk was “the man.”
“Delete SpaceX page on Facebook if you’re the man?” a user tweeted to Tesla Chief Executive Musk. His response: “I didn’t realize there was one. Will do.”
Some follower showed Musk a screen shot of the SpaceX Facebook page. He stated that it was the first time he had seen it, and that it would “be gone soon.”
The #deletefacebook hashtag gained importance after the news broke that Facebook mishandled user data which ended up with Cambridge Analytica – a political consultancy that was handling U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. By deleting his company’s pages from Facebook, Musk has joined the online movement which is asking Facebook users to sever ties with Facebook.
“Instagram’s probably ok … so long as it stays fairly independent,” Musk responded.
“I don’t use FB & never have, so don’t think I’m some kind of martyr or my companies are taking a huge blow. Also, we don’t advertise or pay for endorsements, so … don’t care.”
Zuckerberg and Musk had a public spat last year over a discussion about “whether robots will become smart enough to kill their human creators.” When Zuckerberg was asked about Musk’s views on the dangers of robots, he chided “naysayers” whose “doomsday scenarios” were “irresponsible.” In response, Musk tweeted: “His understanding of the subject is limited.”
Musk promptly removed his company pages from Facebook, however SpaceX and Tesla are still live on Instagram which is owned by Facebook.
