Musk deletes profiles after Facebook scandal

After the uproar over the Facebook scandal that erupted last weekend, Elon Musk has now deleted his own Facebook pages for his two companies, SpaceX and Tesla.

Facebook has been criticized this week for releasing user data from approximately 50 million users to Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, in an attempt to persuade voters by utilizing information provided from the social media platform. As a result Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have been subject to backlash from the public.

According to CNN, Facebook’s stock prices have suffered as well, decreasing 6% in intraday trading, and closed down 2.5% on Tuesday. Their market value has been sliced by tens of billions of dollars as well. Investors have started abandoning the sinking ship.

Many in the public have been considering deleting their accounts on the social media platform. Musk decided to act, and has since deleted both of his companies’ pages from Facebook, saying that they “look[ed] lame anyways.”

Experts had believed that although there was a spike in online searches for “how to delete your Facebook account,” that many wouldn’t actually delete their profiles. Musk’s decision to delete his accounts may prove those experts wrong and encourage others to ditch Facebook.