Universe Today
“As I’m here in Africa, I’m deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX’s launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent.”
This old grudge was also raised on Twitter amidst the discussion about Facebook's data breach, with a user reminding everyone about the incident. Musk brushed this aside, tweeting, "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."
This led to a challenge being issued to Musk, where users wrote him and urged him to delete his company's accounts. In what was arguably an attempt to keep the joke going, Musk responded by indicating that he didn't know these accounts existed. He did, however, also promise to remove the accounts forthwith.
And it appears that Musk was true to his word. While SpaceX and Tesla still have Facebook pages and show up in searches, the official accounts appear to be gone. Musk chose to maintain the company's official Instagram account though, and used the opportunity to once again stress that he had little use for Facebook:
"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."
"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."
Well, martyr or not, Musk appears to have put his money where his mouth is. And of course, his twitter feed is still going strong and there is no indication he plans on turning that off anytime soon! And whether this was intended as as slight to Zuckerberg or a sincere expression of indifference, it is likely that Musk's move could prompt more users to delete their accounts.
But of course, the social media giant will survive. And given Zuckerberg's and Musk's competing visions to provide global broadband internet access using satellites, its a certainty that the two entrepreneurs are not done with each other!