Elon Deletes SpaceX, Tesla, & SolarCity Facebook Pages (After Discovering Them)
What’s the difference between a minnow and a whale? A few days ago, outraged by the news that Mark Zuckerberg made billions while his company was complicit in stealing the 2016 presidential election, I deleted my Facebook account and urged my fellow CleanTechies to do the same. Reading through the comments to that story, I noticed only a few people said they would jump over the cliff with me into the Facebook-less abyss.
That’s OK. I’m a minnow and I know it. I have a little over 2,000 followers on Twitter. Elon Musk has 25 million, which makes him a certified whale. When some of those followers challenged him to delete the Facebook pages for SpaceX and Tesla, he surprised everyone by doing exactly that in a matter of minutes, but not before making a few snarky comments such as “What’s Facebook?” and admitting that he had never seen those Facebook pages before.
Wow, a whole week. Risky …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
What’s Facebook?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
I didn’t realize there was one. Will do.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
Literally never seen it even once
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 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
Definitely. Looks lame anyway.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
Elon apparently picked up the phone, placed a few calls, and any official trace of SpaceX and Tesla disappeared from Facebook, even though the Tesla page had several million likes. Musk sniped that the Tesla Facebook page “Looked lame anyway.” And for good measure, the page for SolarCity has been taken down as well.
The value of Facebook shares has fallen by $25 dollars per share in the last month, but it’s still trading at around $160 a share. If there is a god who controls such things, it will be trading below $10 a share soon and the smug, smarmy Mark Zuckerberg will be looking for more affordable housing.
Money is the only thing greed heads like him understand. There are no ethics in business any more (assuming there ever were). Punishing the stock price is just about the only power ordinary individuals have over modern day tech companies who think owning an algorithm gives them a license to do anything they choose with no thought for those who might be harmed by their actions.
It is possible to construct an argument that Facebook is partially to blame for the worsening state of climate action initiatives in the United States, thanks to its support for the Trump campaign. And no, I am not making that up. It’s the lead story at The Guardian today. Trump’s victory put America’s future in the hands of deplorables like Scott Pruitt, Ryan Zinke, and Rick Perry. Thanks a lot, Zuckerberg. Hope you enjoy living in poverty.
Four class action lawsuits were filed against Facebook this week, according to The Verge. One of them seeks to represent the company’s shareholders against Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, and other members of the board of directors. It claims they failed to stop the data breach or tell users about it when it happened, and therefore violated their fiduciary duty to shareholders. That could put quite a dent in Zuckerberg’s wallet, something he richly deserves.
I’m nobody from nowhere, so people feel quite comfortable ignoring me. But Elon Musk may be the most respected person on the planet. If he has dumped Facebook, shouldn’t you consider doing the same?
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