Musk March Madness & How To Protest Peacefully, From Your Phone😼
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and leader of the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is facing mounting criticism and protests over his political involvement and the actions of DOGE.
Elon Musk’s various controversies have led to massive challenges for Tesla, including declining investor confidence, plummeting stock prices, and a series of violent protests against the company.
Protests and Vandalism
Tesla facilities and vehicles have been targeted by protestors, with incidents ranging from vandalism to violent attacks. In recent months, Tesla showrooms and charging points have been damaged across the U.S. and Europe, including Molotov cocktails being thrown at vehicles in Las Vegas and gunshots fired at a showroom in Portland, Oregon.
Musk has condemned these actions, labeling the protestors as “deranged” and suggesting they are motivated by his work with DOGE.
Musk’s assessment is probably accurate; with widespread criticism of DOGE’s actions and conduct, alongside poor digital hygiene. DOGE’s attempts to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and reduce staffing at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are expected to contribute to an already-rising tide of scams.
A website called Dogequest emerged, encouraging protests and vandalism by publishing personal information of Tesla owners, though it has since been taken down. This move sparked concerns about domestic terrorism, with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi warning of severe repercussions for those involved.
Engineering Issues
To add to the series of issues with Musk’s empire, Tesla recently issued its eighth recall – this time for almost all Cybertrucks. The vehicles have loosely fixed steel panels, prone to breaking off the car and creating dangerous road hazards – adding to the erosion of trust in consumers and investors alike.
While the media buzzes about Musk’s “much-needed” win in bringing 2 stranded astronauts home, this paints an incomplete picture of the space venture. Earlier this month, we saw yet another SpaceX failure, scattering debris across the Caribbean, disrupting 240 flights and forcing the FAA to issue ground stops, and open an investigation into the launch.
Meanwhile, his social media platform Twitter / X also saw widespread outages a couple weeks ago, allegedly falling victim to a “massive cyberattack”. This comes following Musk confirming massive amounts of platform manipulation in his transparency report – we use “transparency” loosely, as the previous owners of Twitter had considerably more transparent reporting standards.
Financial Challenges
The growing list of issues has resulted in Tesla’s stock plummeting over 50% since December 2024. The company’s share price has underperformed the market significantly this year – falling more than 30% this year alone, while the S&P maintains relatively steady performance. Tesla’s downturn, and Musk’s work with DOGE, has led to calls for his resignation as CEO of Tesla.
Year to date, the yellow line is Tesla while the blue is the S&P (top performing companies)👇
Peaceful Protest
Musk’s leadership of DOGE and political alignment has generated a violent response from the market; tanking share prices, waning investor confidence and fiery public protests.
Meanwhile, SpaceX continues to hiccup, while Twitter faces a “massive cyberattack”. But, you are probably not an investor, and you probably don’t want to firebomb Tesla’s (neither do we!). So – how should you protest?
Purging your Twitter / X account, and disengaging with the platform can have a small, but real, impact on ad and subscription revenue. And, you can do it from your smartphone.
If you want to engage in peaceful, digital protest – just follow the steps outlined here to mass delete all your tweets, retweets, likes, and messages. You can do this for free with our app, Redact.