Facebook suffered another blow today: Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, had those two companies’ official pages removed from the embattled social network.
Musk’s action came after it was pointed out to him on Twitter that SpaceX actually had an official Facebook page. “I didn’t realize there was one,” he tweeted.
The context for Musk’s wild and woolly tweetstorm is the controversy over Facebook’s handling of personal data from users. A series of reports found that the information was mishandled, and ended up being used inappropriately to micro-target voters in the 2016 presidential election.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for what he said “was clearly a mistake.” Nevertheless, critics have pushed forward with a #DeleteFacebook campaign. That’s what drew Musk into the fray. Here’s how the debate over the issues (including a joking reference to “The Princess Bride” and the fact that Musk remains active on Instagram, a Facebook subsidiary) went down on Twitter:
It is time. #deletefacebook
— Brian Acton (@brianacton) March 20, 2018
What’s Facebook?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
It's a place for dumb people who believes Mark and submit their personal data so that it can be harvested.
— ᐸSathish /ᐳ (@sathish4vy) March 23, 2018
Inconceivable! Who’d say a thing like that!?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
Mark himself did. ?
— ᐸSathish /ᐳ (@sathish4vy) March 23, 2018
Maybe that word doesn’t mean what I think it does
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
— ? BΛBYMYƧƬ (@Babymyst) March 23, 2018
You can't be serious… Do not these accounts belong to you? pic.twitter.com/c6WVhnuE95
— Ayşegül (@aysegultelli) March 23, 2018
First time I’ve seen either. One on the left looks official. Will be gone soon.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
Delete SpaceX page on Facebook if you're the man?
— ㅤ (@serdarsprofile) March 23, 2018
I didn’t realize there was one. Will do.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
we're waiting pic.twitter.com/5jAEEdja1k
— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) March 23, 2018
SpaceX social media person worrying about their job like pic.twitter.com/I0sGgHV2Rb
— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) March 23, 2018
when @elonmusk casually announces on Twitter that:
A) he didn't realize @SpaceX had a @facebook page
B) he's going to delete it pic.twitter.com/7gDBY3opwo— J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) March 23, 2018
Literally never seen it even once
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
this should be deleted too right? pic.twitter.com/1llNaXS0CC
— bryson (@Bryson_M) March 23, 2018
Definitely. Looks lame anyway.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
yasssssssss pic.twitter.com/qMdTrkcQQm
— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) March 23, 2018
Wait guys remember when @elonmusk blew up Mark Zuckerberg's satellite https://t.co/5kJJUUlGkh
— Kerry Flynn ? (@kerrymflynn) March 23, 2018
Yeah, my fault for being an idiot. We did give them a free launch to make up for it and I think they had some insurance.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
Amazing @elonmusk can run three companies when he spends so much time trolling online
— Mike Murphy (@mcwm) March 23, 2018
What, a troll, me!? How dare you, sir!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
Instagram is subsidiary of Facebook. Be Aware.
— OMAR (@OfficeOfOMAR) March 23, 2018
Yeah, it’s borderline. FB influence is slowly creeping in.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
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
We’ve never advertised with FB. None of my companies buy advertising or pay famous people to fake endorse. Product lives or dies on its own merits.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
@elonmusk I was always following the live feed of SpaceX on Facebook! Why did u delete? U need to use facebook with common sense, and your profile is okay than!
— Balazs Szekely (@tiggerl82) March 23, 2018
You’ll live
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
This isn’t the first time Musk and Zuckerberg have locked horns. As noted above, a launch-pad explosion in September 2016 destroyed a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as well as an Israeli satellite that was supposed to help Facebook provide internet access across a wide swath of Africa.
Just after the blast, Zuckerberg said he was “deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX’s launch failure destroyed our satellite.”
Last year, the two billionaires got into a tiff over whether the rapid rise of artificial intelligence will turn out to be a good thing or a bad thing.
At the National Governors Association’s summer meeting, Musk complained that policymakers and tech leaders weren’t taking the AI threat seriously. “Until people see robots going down the street, killing people, they don’t know how to react because it seems so ethereal,” Musk said.
Zuckerberg bristled over those comments. Days later, during a Facebook Live video session, he said such AI doomsday predictions were “pretty irresponsible.”
It didn’t take long for Musk to fire back. “I’ve talked to Mark about this,” he tweeted. “His understanding of the subject is limited.”
In light of all that history, Musk’s claim that he didn’t even know his companies had Facebook pages — followed by the immediate deletion of those pages, followed by the remark that he doesn’t even care about Facebook — looks like the ultimate geek putdown. Your move, Mr. Zuckerberg.
Update for 1 p.m. PT March 23: Indivigital notes that Tesla’s Facebook page had about 2.6 million likes, and that it put up 120 posts over the past year. Its top post during that time frame (about the Model 3 electric car) generated 76,705 total interactions.
SpaceX’s Facebook page also had 2.6 million likes. In comparison, United Launch Alliance’s Facebook page has about 112,000 likes, while NASA and BMW have 20 million likes each.