Facebook has recently been embroiled in a controversy following allegations that the analytics firm Cambridge Analytica mined private data from over 50 million Facebook users. While CEO Mark Zuckerberg has issued a statement outlining a three-pronged approach to protecting the privacy of the platform"s users, an investigation from the EU is still underway to determine the extent of the breach.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of users have also taken to Twitter to take part in the #DeleteFacebook challenge. These protesters include SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk as well.
In a string of tweets, Musk noted that he didn"t even know that SpaceX had a Facebook page, prior to a Twitter user informing him about its existence. He was soon told that there was also an official Tesla page on the same platform that the entrepreneur was criticizing.
I didn’t realize there was one. Will do.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
Definitely. Looks lame anyway.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
True to his word, both Facebook pages were erased from the platform nearly 20 minutes after his tweets.
The move is both interesting and daring considering that the pages collectively boasted over 5 million likes. It"s currently unclear if this will affect the companies" social media presence, but Musk states that they"ve never advertised on Facebook, and that a "product lives or dies on its own merits."
The eccentric executive notes that he"s fine with Facebook-owned Instagram as long as it remains "fairly independent", but the social media manager responsible for handling the accounts is probably sweating profusely right about now.