His alignment with the ideology he espouses has sparked a backlash in Europe and a wave of departures from the platform of the tech billionaire, whose political association with the new US president marks for some a new era in politics.
More and more ordinary citizens, but also politicians, government bodies – including the Bundesbank and the German Ministry of Defense – are suspending their accounts in response to the antics of billionaire owner Elon Musk, as Bloomberg writes.
These deletions are linked to a growing sense among prominent users that the social network is more or less becoming a breeding ground for Musk’s ideas that users are forced to interact with.
Among other things, there is talk of his tweets being almost impossible to avoid, that X’s algorithm boosts them at the expense of credibility, and that the combination of more AI and less moderation will make things worse.
Musk’s latest attempts to meddle in European politics with attacks on European leaders and his open support for the German far-right was the final straw, sparking public outrage for him and his .
In the last week, several German ministries, as well as the vice president of France’s National Assembly, deleted or restricted the use of X. Germany’s defense ministry announced that “objective” information sharing had become too difficult on X, while Roland Lescure , a former minister under Macron, said the social media site had become a “propaganda outlet”.
And while these accounts, which represent a few hundred thousand users, may be a tiny fraction of X’s 213.5 million users, they carry weight in their own right that creates an unpleasant footprint for the social network, as such departures potentially making X look more like a microcosm network for like-minded Musks.
It also sends a wider message that stopping the use of the particular medium does not equate to isolating the users who leave it, nor does it “tie their hands”, as it might have been done in the past, because today there are alternative solutions that are gaining ground and new tools which help to transfer files and followers.
Another motivation, too, for EU leaders to curb X is to try to find ways to put pressure on Musk at a time when the union is trying to impose regulations on how Big Tech companies do business in Europe.
And in… stickers
Since billionaire Musk’s crude intervention in German politics, the AfD has jumped above 20% in a national poll for the first time.
Experts characterize these interventions as a “Tech Coup” and accuse Musk of undermining democracy by promoting a global network of far-right parties, writes Efthimis Angeloudis in Deutsche Welle. And, understandably, that doesn’t sit well with many of his customers. And Musk not only owns the X, but also the iconic electric car industry, Tesla. Those who bought a Tesla because of an ecological conviction now definitely feel something like “Tesla-shame” (shame on Tesla) and may not even dare to leave the garage with their vehicle,” Stefan Wegner from the advertising agency Scholz&Friends.
The fact that Musk’s company has already lost customers willing to buy its vehicles in Germany is mainly reflected in the sales figures. New Tesla car registrations have almost halved, with 37,000 new vehicles in 2024 compared to 63,000 in 2023.
Patrick Schneider, a graphic designer from Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg, who also spoke to DW, said that as a Tesla driver, you will be asked about Musk’s political beliefs, whether you agree or not. He found out the hard way when he was told in a supermarket parking lot that as a Tesla driver he would probably also vote for the Alternative for Germany. This troubled him: “It’s crazy: I got my dream car and suddenly I’m being identified with far-right positions,” he said.
Snyder searched for a sticker declaring his attitude toward Elon for his car. It already existed in America – but only there. Since the graphic designer was already designing stickers for electric bikes, he decided to make a Tesla sticker himself. “I uploaded it to Amazon and that’s how it started.” What does the sticker mean? “I bought this car before Musk went crazy”!
“I try to position myself clearly and show my attitude,” says Schneider, speaking to the German website tagesschau.de. “That being said, I love driving this car and he does [ο Μασκ] helped create something great. But when it comes to Elon right now, you can’t go on any longer.”
Reactions to his sticker, which is affixed to his black Tesla, have been consistently positive in real life. “If I’m sitting in the car and someone walks by and reads it and smiles – then I’ve made it.”
Advertising expert Stefan Wegner calls the sticker “a visual expression of Tesla’s shame.” Elon Musk is calling on people to vote for the AfD, and the party’s election manifesto pretty much says: Abolish the electric car. “And these contradictions are of course strange,” says Wegner. “For a certain group of buyers who are now moving away from Tesla, just as they were moving away from Platform X, this is certainly a defining factor and actually a conscious consumer decision.”
Also, big customers are already moving away from the American giant. Personal care chain Rossmann said it would no longer buy Tesla cars because of “the incompatibility between the statements of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the values he represents with its products.”
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