Facebook's mounting image problems hit a whole other orbit on Friday.
Tech icon Elon Musk appeared to delete the official Facebook pages for two of his companies, SpaceX and Tesla, Inc.
Musk's moves come days after a whistleblower revealed that a data analysis firm tied to President Donald Trump's campaign had harvested data off Facebook, resulting in widespread criticism and sparking government investigations.
Musk responded to a tweet from WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, who had initially drawn attention in the tech community for tweeting "It is time. #deletefacebook." Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $16 billion in February 2014. Acton is no longer with Facebook or WhatsApp.
"What's Facebook?" Musk tweeted back.
"Delete SpaceX page on Facebook if you're the man?" another follower demanded.
"I didn’t realize there was one. Will do," Musk responded.
As of early Friday afternoon, the Facebook pages for SpaceX and Tesla both resulted in the same error: "Sorry, this content isn't available right now."
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Facebook has been reeling in the wake of revelations that Cambridge Analytica used harvested information from 50 million Facebook users to micro-target ads to influence voters.
Musk joins a growing group of people in the tech industry who have taken aim at social media companies and Facebook in particular. Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud computing company Box, recently tweeted: "The days of arguing that (and acting like) tech companies are merely platforms and pipes are behind us."
Marc Benioff, CEO of business software company Salesforce, recently started equating social media to smoking cigarettes.
Musk provided some levity at the end of a long week of bad news for Facebook, but its CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces some serious consequences. Also on Friday, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation called for Zuckerberg to testify.
"On a bipartisan basis, we believe Mr. Zuckerberg's testimony is necessary to gain a better understanding of how the company plans to restore lost trust, safeguard users' data, and end a trouble series of belated responses to serious problems," wrote Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., in a joint statement.
