Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has deleted his Tesla and SpaceX brands from Facebook, following accusations that data firm Cambridge Analytica used data harvested from the social networking site to influence elections.
In response to Twitter users calling for people to delete Facebook, Musk tweeted: "What's Facebook?"
When challenged to remove his own brands' pages from the site, he said: "I didn’t realise there was one. Will do."
I didn’t realize there was one. Will do.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
Read more: Mark Zuckerberg breaks his silence on Cambridge Analytica: "We made mistakes"
Musk added that the pages looked "lame", saying he didn't use Facebook and never had. The tech magnate said Instagram, which is a subsidiary of Facebook, was just about acceptable "so long as it stays fairly independent", and that his company would continue using it.
Since the news of Cambridge Analytica's controversial use of Facebook data emerged a week ago, Facebook's share price has plummeted more than 13 per cent.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018
The comments from Musk came as Cambridge Analytica's offices were raided last night by agents of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
The High Court had granted the ICO a warrant to aid its "investigation into the use of personal data for political purposes".
Cambridge Analytica, which aims to use data to alter the behaviour of internet users, was hired by Donald Trump's campaign team as he ran for president in 2016. Brittany Kaiser, the business's former business development director, told the Guardian that it had worker with Brexit campaign group Leave.EU involving analysis of data provided by Ukip, though Cambridge Analytica has said it did “no paid or unpaid work” for the group.
Both Cambridge Analytica and Facebook have denied any wrongdoing.
Read more:Cambridge Analytica London HQ evacuated on reports of suspicious package
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