Elon Musk Deletes SpaceX And Tesla’s Facebook Pages After Challenge From Twitter User

OfficeChai Team

Trust Elon Musk to back up his many ramblings on Twitter, no matter how bizarre.

Musk has just got the SpaceX’s and Tesla’s pages deleted from Facebook after what seemed like a dare from a random Twitter user. Musk had been active on Twitter today evening, replying to several random tweets, until he replied with a “What’s Facebook” in response to a tweet from WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton. Acton had asked people to delete their Facebook accounts three days ago in response to news reports that data from the platform had been sold to third parties, which had in turn used it to influence the US election.

 

But Twitter wasn’t going to let him off so easy. “You can’t be serious… Do not these accounts belong to you?,” said user Aysegul, while sharing screenshots of SpaceX’s Facebook page. But Musk continued to feign ignorance of what Facebook was. “First time I’ve seen either. Will be gone soon,” he replied.

And a man who launches rockets for a living doesn’t muck around while getting Facebook pages deleted — within 15 minutes, the pages of SpaceX and Tesla had been removed from Facebook.

And while Musk’s deletion of SpaceX and Tesla pages might seem like a game of dare gone too far, it’s possible that he’s not just messing around — his removal of his company’s Facebook accounts will undoubtedly be seen as him throwing his weight behind the #DeleteFacebook campaign that’s been brewing online. Some users have been deleting their Facebook accounts in protest of the platform’s lax privacy policies, which allegedly caused the personal data of 50 million Americans to be sold to a UK firm, and in turn used to influence the US Presidential election. The biggest voice in the movement thus far had thus been WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton, who’d been a Facebook employee until 6 months ago, but with Musk entering the fray, #DeleteFacebook might’ve got its biggest backer yet.

And Musk and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg aren’t exactly best friends. Last year, after Musk had publicly spoken about the dangers of AI, Zuckerberg had said that he was being irresponsible. “I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios — I just, I don’t understand it. It’s really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible,” Zuckerberg had said, without ever naming Musk. Musk had then tersely replied that he thought that Zuckerberg’s understand of the subject was “limited.”

And while Musk’s near-instant deletion of SpaceX’s and Tesla’s Facebook pages shows that there is clearly no love lost between him and Zuckerberg, it also shows that it’s best to take his Twitter pronouncements seriously. Last year, while stuck in traffic, he’d tweeted that it would be nice to have underground tunnels to get around faster, and months later, had founded the Boring Company and  begun digging tunnels. He’d also tweeted that he wanted to send a Tesla to space, and then had not only gone ahead and done it, but also live-streamed it for the world to see. People usually take pains to showcase their best selves on social media; in the case of Elon Musk, he seems to follow up his announcements on social media to do some pretty amazing things.