ELON MUSK LATEST TO DUMP FACEBOOK
SpaceX, Tesla mogul Musk takes down company pages from embattled social-media giant
THIS MISSION was a simple one.
Elon Musk took down the SpaceX and Tesla Facebook pages, as well as his own on Friday, after Twitter users called on the business magnate to support the #DeleteFacebook movement.
The space developer and billionaire at first did not realize that SpaceX even had a Facebook page.
“Delete SpaceX page on Facebook if you’re the man?” Twitter user serdarsprofile asked Musk.
“I didn’t realize there was one,” responded Musk, who has 20.5 million Twitter followers. “Will do.”
A reporter tweeted a picture of Tesla’s Facebook page to Musk with the message, “this should be deleted too right?”
“Definitely,” Musk said. “Looks lame anyway.”
Musk also took down his personal Facebook page, according to Tech Crunch.
Earlier in the day, Musk had poked fun at Mark Zuckerberg’s embattled social media enterprise, writing, “What’s Facebook?”
The #DeleteFacebook movement continued to gain steam as the giant company struggled to distance itself from its privacy scandal.
Zuckerberg admitted this week that the company knew in 2015 that research firm Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained the private data of an estimated 50 million Facebook users. The speaker giant Sonos announced Friday that it is pulling advertising from Facebook, Instagram, Google and Twitter for a week. Instagram is owned by Facebook. “We are concerned by the recent revelations about Facebook and the exploitation of its platform,” the company wrote on its blog. “The Cambridge Analytica scandal, like many recent headlines coming out of Silicon Valley, raises questions about whether Big Tech is doing enough to balance its own interests with one of its biggest responsibilities: Safeguarding your privacy.”
The web giant Mozilla had said Thursday it was suspending advertising on Facebook.
Also, German bank Commerzbank announced it was putting Facebook advertising “on hold” as it evaluates data security.
Experts say Facebook’s ability to reach people globally is crucial for digital marketing and will likely bring the companies back.
Meanwhile, Facebook downplayed the actions.
“Most of the businesses we’ve spoken with this week are pleased with the steps we’ve outlined to better protect people’s data, and they have confidence that we’ll respond to these challenges and become a better partner and company as a result,” the company said in a statement.