Elon Musk weighed in on the #DeleteFacebook movement today, nonchalantly shutting down the Facebook pages for Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk took action after WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton tweeted on Tuesday that he would ditch Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. To that, Musk sarcastically replied: "What's a Facebook?"
A Twitter user then told Musk: "Delete SpaceX page on Facebook if you're the man?"
In a reply, Musk said: "I didn't realize there was one. Will do." Minutes later he followed up another request to delete the Tesla Facebook page, tweeting back: "Definitely. Looks lame anyway."
Musk later said he's never used Facebook, and never will. "So don't think I'm some kind of martyr or my companies are taking a huge blow." He added: "Also, we don't advertise or pay for endorsements, so … don't care." Still, the Facebook Pages for each of his companies had over 2 million likes.
Musk has thus far refrained from shutting down company and personal pages on Facebook-owned Instagram.
Instagram's probably ok imo, so long as it stays fairly independent. 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. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
Musk decided to delete the pages a day after Mozilla said it is suspending advertising with Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica controversy. The Firefox developer is demanding that Facebook do better to protect users' privacy from third-party apps. Today, Sonos said it will do the same.
Back in 2014, 50 million users had their Facebook data leaked to UK-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica through a third-party research app. That data was used to help GOP political campaigns, and Cambridge went on to work with Donald Trump's 2016 presidential election. Since the incident came to light, Facebook has vowed to revamp its privacy practices, but calls for the public to quit the platform persist.