Elon Musk takes shot at Facebook with "Domino Effect" meme

Austin, Texas - The outspoken billionaire business icon Elon Musk, whose tweets often kick up a storm on social media, has done it once again: he shared an image on Wednesday night that drew a direct line from the launch of Facebook to the chaos and violence pro-Trump rioters inflicted in the Capitol.

Elon Musk (49) has blamed Facebook for being partially responsible for the riots in Washington, DC.
Elon Musk (49) has blamed Facebook for being partially responsible for the riots in Washington, DC.  © imago images / ZUMA Wire

The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company took to Twitter to share an image of a man setting off a row of white dominos, which is widely known as the Domino Effect meme.

The smallest tile, the domino that causes the others to fall, bears the caption "a website to rate women on campus" – a clear reference to Facebook's origins as Facemash, a website that allowed students at Harvard to rate women's looks.

The largest tile showed a live update from The New York Times journalist Mark Leibovich, writing: "The Capitol seems to be under the control of a man in a viking hat."

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Leibovich was referring to Jake Angeli, a well-known QAnon influencer. Pictures of him flooded social media as he stormed the Capitol wearing a fur hat with horns.

"This is called the domino effect," Musk (49) captioned tweeted.

The Tesla CEO is essentially blaming Facebook for the violence in the Capitol, linking the rather innocent beginnings of the company to the January 6 riots.

Musk drwas connection between Facebook and Capitol riots

Musk takes swipe at Facebook: Trump uses platform to spread misinformation about election fraud

Mark Zuckerberg's company Facebook has come under fire for its failed crackdown on misinformation.
Mark Zuckerberg's company Facebook has come under fire for its failed crackdown on misinformation.  © imago images / Kyodo News

When a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol, Donald Trump didn't condemn the rioters. Instead, he took to social media platforms, including Facebook, to continue spreading false claims about election fraud and telling the violent mob they were "special."

Facebook's decision to block his account came a few hours later.

Zuckerburg's social network has faced repeated pressure to take action against the false claims spread on its platforms. And while the social media companies have labeled several of Trump's tweets and posts "false or misleading" following the November election, critics have said those measures have done little to stop the spread of misinformation that incite violence. Musk is now adding to those voices.

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It's not the first time the billionaire has taken a swipe at Facebook.

In February 2020, he responded to an anti-Facebook tweet by Hollywood director Sacha Baron Cohen, calling Facebook "lame" and suggested Cohen should delete it.

Musk already deleted pages of Tesla and SpaceX on Facebook back in 2018

Back in 2018, Musk said he would never use Facebook and even deleted the Tesla and SpaceX official pages.

His latest attack against Facebook made waves on the web, with more than 250,000 likes and numerous people agreeing with Musk under the post.

"The violent protests in the Capitol today are a disgrace," a Facebook spokesman told MarketWatch. "We prohibit incitement and calls for violence on our platform. We are actively reviewing and removing any content that breaks these rules."

Zuckerberg has not issued a public statement yet in response to the allegations against his platform.

Cover photo: imago images / ZUMA Wire

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