Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, said on Saturday in a tweet that Facebook gives him a feeling of nervousness and fear.
Replying to a news report about Tesla and SpaceX deleting their Facebook pages, he said, “It’s not a political statement and I didn’t do this because someone dared me to do it.”
“Just don’t like Facebook. Gives me the willies. Sorry.”
Elon Musk had promised to delete the Facebook accounts of SpaceX and Tesla Motors (which he acted upon) on a suggestion of one of the Twitter users. He had then said that he didn’t know there were any Facebook pages of the organisations he owns.
The #deletefacebook movement started on social media after one of the founders of WhatsApp Brian Acton tweeted that it was time to delete Facebook in the wake of sweeping user data leak revelations.
Many other companies have also deleted or deactivated their Facebook pages. Mozilla Foundation which develops Mozilla browser and Thunderbird, an email and news client, said in a blog post last week, "We're taking a break from Facebook."
It said it is "pressing pause" on its Facebook advertising and won't be posting on its Facebook page. But it did not delete its page and said it will consider returning if Facebook takes stronger actions to protect users' data and improves privacy settings.
German bank Commerzbank also said it was putting Facebook advertising "on hold" as it evaluates data security. And Sonos, which makes speakers and other electronics, said it is pulling advertising from Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Twitter for a week.
The widespread reaction is following the revelations of a major leak of user data to political consultants namely Cambridge Analytica associated with the 2016 Trump campaign. Share prices of Mark Zuckerberg led company tanked over 13 percent last week.
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