Elon Musk deletes official SpaceX and Tesla Facebook pages

[Shawn Knight]

Serial entrepreneur Elon Musk on Friday deleted the official Facebook pages for two of his largest companies, SpaceX and Tesla - wiping out millions of followers and likes in the process.

The events unfolded on Twitter after Musk replied to a Twitter post regarding a story from The Verge about Sonos pulling its ads from Facebook and Instagram for one week.

Wow, a whole week. Risky ...

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018

The comment picked up steam and within minutes, people were suggesting he delete the Facebook pages for SpaceX and Tesla. In one reply about the SpaceX page, Musk said he “didn’t realize there was one” and vowed to axe it. In response to another message asking about deleting Tesla’s page, Musk said “Definitely. Looks lame anyway.”

Less than half an hour later, both pages had seemingly been removed. Navigating to facebook.com/SpaceX and facebook.com/tesla currently generates the following error message.

As the #DeleteFacebook campaign picks up momentum, it’s not entirely surprising to see Musk distance himself from Facebook. In mid-2017, Musk and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed conflicting opinions on their views of artificial intelligence. Musk at the time on Twitter said he had talked to Zuckerberg on the matter and said “his understanding of the subject is limited.”

Mozilla earlier this week announced it was pulling all advertising from Facebook. A day earlier, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton called for people to delete their Facebook accounts in protest of the recent Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/73861-elon-musk-deletes-official-spacex-tesla-facebook-pages.html

 

[cliffordcooley]

I've already been butthurt over Facebook and stopped using it for five years. Why would I follow them, now that they are butthurt? They didn't give a **** about me when I was butthurt.

 

[Lurker101]

His response to The Verge was enough to garner some respect from me. If I hadn't deleted my account over 8 years ago, I'd be jumping on this bandwagon.

 

[Dimensive]

#DeleteSocialMedia

 

[OutlawCecil]

Anybody who deletes their Facebook account due to the "Cambridge Analytica data scandal" doesn't understand what it's even about. This was not Facebook's fault and when they found out about it, they did what they could to put an end to it. They also demanded the private information be immediately deleted. I love Elon Musk but clearly he deleted those accounts mainly because he didn't even know he had them.

 

[Lurker101]

This was not Facebook's fault

This is ENTIRELY Facebooks fault This is exactly what Facebook was designed for. The mass harvesting and wholesale of user data for monetary and political gain. The issue for both the company and the casual users is just how much this has exposed what Facebook really is.

 

[cliffordcooley]

This is exactly what Facebook was designed for.

Please! This may be what Facebook has become, but not what it was designed for.

 

[Lurker101]

Please! This may be what Facebook has become, but not what it was designed for.

Keep telling yourself that

 

[Nobina]

Keep telling yourself that

I've got more proof

 

[cliffordcooley]

Keep telling yourself that

You seriously think that is not a smear campaign? You're going to have to do better than that to convince me.

 

[oldikes]

You seriously think that is not a smear campaign? You're going to have to do better than that to convince me.

I mean two seconds of googling would show you zuckerberg himself admitted to it years ago, just saying sorry, and that it was "damaging".

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

This is exactly what Facebook was designed for.

Please! This may be what Facebook has become, but not what it was designed for.

So the ads you receive from Disneyworld and Tropicana OJ after posting pictures on Facebook of your recent trip to Florida are just a coincidence, then?

 

[cliffordcooley]

So the ads you receive from Disneyworld and Tropicana OJ after posting pictures on Facebook of your recent trip to Florida are just a coincidence, then?

If you posted that as an argument to what I said, you failed.

 

[Uncle Al]

Hopeful the US will adopt the same principles and laws that Germany recently did to Facebook .... that would be a blessing

 

[regiq]

And what about Google..? And Microsoft? And...
Facebook is just a tip of an iceberg. Our data is the main source of income for every major internet company - just read the ToSes. Maybe it's time for a change?
https://spreadprivacy.com/data-privacy-day-2018/
https://tosdr.org/

BTW have you heard about Snowden..? Everyone acts like they haven't...

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

This was not Facebook's fault

This is ENTIRELY Facebooks fault This is exactly what Facebook was designed for. The mass harvesting and wholesale of user data for monetary and political gain. The issue for both the company and the casual users is just how much this has exposed what Facebook really is.

Right... and the kazillion dollars they make selling ads to the millions of people sharing baby and puppy pics is just a cover.

This is just a publicity stunt... and here we are giving them publicity.

 

[poohbear]

Hello, I own a small business and facebook is a huge source of advertisement & promotion for me & im sure countless other small businesses, so no, lets not delete FB. Alot of their issues can still be resolved and even regulated, I dont see how just deleteling FB is gonna resolve the problem? Even if ppl did, another dozen social media giants would just emerge to fill the vacuum.

 

[Mister_K]

#DeleteSocialMedia

bad idea mate, Social Media is ultra handy for various reasons. Transparency being one of them, which ties into communication across the globe.

 

[bas416]

Please! This may be what Facebook has become, but not what it was designed for.

Keep telling yourself that

butterfly effect

 

[regiq]

Hello, I own a small business and facebook is a huge source of advertisement & promotion for me & im sure countless other small businesses, so no, lets not delete FB. Alot of their issues can still be resolved and even regulated, I dont see how just deleteling FB is gonna resolve the problem? Even if ppl did, another dozen social media giants would just emerge to fill the vacuum.

And you really think that being totally dependent on whims of one giant is good for your business?
Facebook created a whole new marketing ecosystem and is a monopolist in it but that's never a good thing.
If social media is to be fair it has to consist of many independent but interoperating networks with a common standard, like Diaspora or Movim.
https://diasporafoundation.org/
https://movim.eu/

 

[Lurker101]

another dozen social media giants would just emerge to fill the vacuum.

That would be better than having it all consolidated into one, giant, monopolistic company

 

[DaveBG]

I only use fake facebook accounts. I wonder why people give their personal data to this brown hole of a site...

 

[Cubi Dorf]

Social medias not the problem. Facebook handling of customer data is problem. They not saying to stop using social media. They trying put pressure on Facebook for stopping the exploitation of customers. If other social media takes Facebook place who not exploit customer then problem solved and you can still reach your customer online. Or if Facebook changes policy to stop customer leaving then problem solved. Doing nothing does not solve problem.

Hello, I own a small business and facebook is a huge source of advertisement & promotion for me & im sure countless other small businesses, so no, lets not delete FB. Alot of their issues can still be resolved and even regulated, I dont see how just deleteling FB is gonna resolve the problem? Even if ppl did, another dozen social media giants would just emerge to fill the vacuum.

 

[Nobina]

Hello, I own a small business and facebook is a huge source of advertisement & promotion for me & im sure countless other small businesses, so no, lets not delete FB. Alot of their issues can still be resolved and even regulated, I dont see how just deleteling FB is gonna resolve the problem? Even if ppl did, another dozen social media giants would just emerge to fill the vacuum.

That is the problem with FB. It has become a marketing site rather than a place you go to talk to people. And whatever gains you have from it won't justify their behaviour.

 

[picka]

And what about Google..? And Microsoft? And...
Facebook is just a tip of an iceberg. Our data is the main source of income for every major internet company - just read the ToSes. Maybe it's time for a change?
https://spreadprivacy.com/data-privacy-day-2018/
https://tosdr.org/

BTW have you heard about Snowden..? Everyone acts like they haven't...

Google values the data too much to give it away to third parties. They prefer to profit from it themselves by selling personalised ads.