Mozilla, Tesla, other high-tech businesses take a Facebook pause

NEW YORK — Mozilla, Tesla and other companies are distancing themselves from Facebook following revelations of a major leak of user data to political consultants associated with the 2016 Trump campaign.

While the actions will not likely be permanent and won’t have much of an effect on Facebook’s bottom line, they’re the latest fallout the social-media giant has to contend with from the ever-spiraling scandal — along with a tumbling stock price and a #deletefacebook movement.

“We’re taking a break from Facebook,” Mozilla said in a blog post on Wednesday. The company, which created the Firefox web browser, said it is “pressing pause” on its Facebook advertising and won’t be posting on its Facebook page. But it did not delete its page and said it will consider returning if Facebook takes stronger actions to protect users’ data and improves privacy settings.

German bank Commerzbank also said it was putting Facebook advertising “on hold” as it evaluates data security. And Sonos, which makes speakers and other electronics, said it is pulling advertising from Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Twitter for a week.

Elon Musk, meanwhile, made waves, saying in a Twitter exchange that he would take down the Facebook sites for his companies Tesla and SpaceX. As of Thursday afternoon, the sites appeared to be inactive.

While the actions are likely temporary, they’re one more piece of the growing headache for Facebook since news of the leak broke a week ago. It has faced criticism because CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg did not speak out until five days after the story broke. The company’s stock price shed 14 percent of its value this week. And the grumblings by users, and now, businesses shows no sign of abating.