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Tesla Sues for Defamation over Social Media Posts
- sidibe 5y agoMeanwhile their CEO posts a Wikipedia link of a critical government official on twitter so his followers will vandalize.
- hef19898 5y agoBullies seem to create bullying cultures. At least that's leading by example, isn't it?
- amelius 5y agoThat's what you get when you let people without engineering abilities run a tech company. They just gotta find something "useful" to do, and it aint designing a better battery.
- p_j_w 5y agoThe number of people who seem to worship Elon Musk in spite of his shitty behavior is really discouraging.
- rcMgD2BwE72F 5y agoWhat a biased take on this: s/vandalize/read
- sidibe 5y agoStrange that he just wanted everyone to read a little uninteresting bio
- rcMgD2BwE72F 5y agoDid you know the head of the agency had 0 experience in the industry she now oversees? I did not, but I do b/c I clicked the link, and read the article at that time. I'm quite interested in public policy and administration, lobbying and the auto industry (PS: I've created several articles over the years about the Dieselgate, for instance). I'm probably strange in your POV but that's okay. BTW, there's been 3 cases of actual vandalism for 23 edits[0]. And 30,000 pageviews[1]. I'm happy with that. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jennifer_Homendy&type=revision&diff=1046702114&oldid=1041701805 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jennifer_Homendy&... [1] https://pageviews.toolforge.org/?project=en.wikipedia.org&platform=all-access&agent=user&redirects=0&range=latest-20&pages=Jennifer_Homendy https://pageviews.toolforge.org/?project=en.wikipedia.org&pl...
- hyproxia 5y agoCan you post a link to his tweet, please?
- curiousfab 5y agoI would never have heard or cared about the original fraud case. A great example of the Streisand effect.
- natchy 5y agoMaybe Tesla was actually innocent and they are counting on the Streisand effect. It’s a stretch.
- kryptozinc 5y agoOh look - Elon's bootlicker.
- celticninja 5y agoperhaps RTFA, Tesla provided documentation that said the car had actually been involved in a collision. SO they lied, incompetently tried to cover it up, handed over evidence that proved their opponents case, were found to be at fault, appealed the result, which was upheld. Now they want to sue this guy for, what seems to be, winning his case. So yes, this is the streisand effect in effect.
- nefitty 5y agoRTFA means "read the fucking article". You've broken a rule of Hacker News. Always assume everyone read the article. Please edit your comment with an apology or delete it.
- LightG 5y agoI have a lot of respect for the engineers and workers at Tesla. But there is something rotten at the core of that company and I'd never buy one now. It's now a branding issue. Do I want to be associated with this company? No.
- kwhitefoot 5y agoI can understand disliking the current behaviour of the company but which car company would you approve of? Presumably not Volkswagen because of the diesel scandal. GM used to engineer in planned obsolescence. I imagine that plenty more of them have dirty secrets too.
- justin_oaks 5y agoThanks for bringing this up. I had a friend once who said that Wells Fargo was the devil, but when looking around at other banks, I don't see any who aren't involved in scandals or user-hostile behavior. Which companies should we use when nearly all of them seem to be corrupt?
- LightG 5y agoIf you must use one, then the least worst based on your values. That may be different for everyone, but that's ok. That's democracy in action.
- LightG 5y agoCorrect. I maintain a "classic" car from 2005, which I hope to convert to electric in a few years as a fun side project. I ride a bicycle. And I walk. Yourself?
- kwhitefoot 5y agoNo classic car, electric since 2017 (Model S 70D), no bike, lots of walking.
- falcolas 5y agoThat's just... I mean, seriously, who in their leadership chain thought this would ever be a good idea?
- soco 5y agoGiven how many big companies seem to get away with minor slaps on the wrist for even bigger frauds, that leadership might know more than us about how those mechanics work.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- elliekelly 5y agoThis just seems like legal bullying by Tesla. An attempt to scare someone into silence when all other avenues have been exhausted.
- rendall 5y agoThat sounds implausible. Jalopnik is part of the same cluster as Jezebel, Gawker and Kotaku. Not saying it's not true, but I'd need to see another credible source confirm before I believe it
- AlexandrB 5y agoThe article links several other sources, including the South China Morning Post: https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3150275/man-says-tesla-suing-him-us650000-online-posts https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/arti...
- rendall 5y agoSure, but it's all from the guy himself. No indication of follow-up, nor confirmation. A link to, say, the actual lawsuit on a government website, is confirmation. Tesla saying something like "We do not comment on ongoing litigation" is confirmation. A link to another news website of dubious provenance, likely the self-same source from which Jalopnik itself got the scoop, is not a credible source. Those news articles are literally just repeating what the guy himself said on social media. Come on, people. Media literacy and critical thinking is essential. Don't believe something just because it confirms your preconception, even if you hate Tesla, Musk, Pelosi, Trump, whatever, whomever. Go ahead and downvote if you must. It'd be awesome if you could say why but go off.
- hluska 5y agoIt’s usually unbelievably boring to talk about downvotes, but I downvoted this comment. It’s not only incredibly boring but assumes that you’re the only intelligent person who bothers to read critically. Not only is that wrong but it’s tremendously egotistical and again, incredibly boring to read. You might be right but you could have expressed that in a less ego filled (and thus somewhat interesting) way. This current comment, I’m sorry, but it’s too incredibly boring for anything but downvotes.
- 5y ago
- rdtwo 5y agoA culture of fraud and lies
- seeekr 5y agoIf all of this is true, it feels like Tesla China employs some people that really should not be part of Tesla. It's probably a nontrivial effort to keep everyone aligned in a company that spans the whole globe.
- syshum 5y agoSounds like Tesla China is employing people that aligned with company goals.... More likely you have a rose colored picture of what this corporation is about. I am not a Elon hater like many, I actually enjoy is Social media antics.. however Tesla as a company is terrible, from their apple like control over their "platform" to their amazon like labor practices, to their Authoritarian needs to control all aspects of their products... No it sounds like Tesla China is right inline with Corporate Tesla
- yumraj 5y agoAre you implying that Musk didn't know about this lawsuit? Highly doubt it, since he seems to be exactly the type of CEO who would do this and also he's not the type of CEO without whose approval such a thing could have happened.
- yellow_lead 5y agoMy first thought too - although it doesn't excuse it.
- mfer 5y agoWhich people? The ones that sold the car while claiming it had not been in an accident? The people who want to sue now? I would guess the sales people and lawyers are in different areas of the company. Could this be a cultural thing at the company or, at least, the part in China? Remember, Tesla builds cars that you aren't allowed to have non-Tesla folks fix them and Tesla has turned off features in used cars because they didn't think it was bought at a high enough price (even when it was sold used with the features). This has happened in the US.
- new_realist 5y agoElon is one of the most litigious CEOs. Fish rots from the head.
- NelsonMinar 5y agoGosh, and the defendant didn't even call anyone a pedo.
- Ekaros 5y agoI think reasonable move with these sort of companies is to ban them from market for decade or two. People get prison sentences, why shouldn't companies too?
- anchpop 5y agoyou get prison sentences for spurious lawsuits?
- avereveard 5y agowhat about fraud?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- drummer 5y agoLosing respect for Elon in nanoseconds
- techrat 5y agoIt took until now for you to lose respect for him?
- ada1981 5y agoAdd this to my file of “Elon & Jeff Need Gas Money”… I recently met a founder whose $100MM a year LED business was bankrupt by Jeff Bezos first cloning and then shutting down his Amazon business. Without the government extracting taxes via a violence monoploy to fund gas money for space, guys like Elon and Jeff are forced to do shit like this so that they can fill up the rockets and get off world, man.
- ben_w 5y agoExcept the only connection between Tesla and SpaceX is the founder, not the money. And SpaceX is cheaper than all the other rocket companies, so it’s saving the US taxpayer a lot of money. And SpaceX isn’t even reliant on government contracts any more. Don’t get me wrong: any world where a billionaire can successfully defend himself in a defamation suit when he calls someone a pedo with no evidence, his company definitely shouldn’t be able to even pull stunts like this, let alone succeed with them. But that’s a separate issue to “oh no my spaceship”.
- hef19898 5y agoDidn't Tesla use SpaceX securities to guarantee bank credit lines or some such?
- ben_w 5y agoThat’s the first I’ve heard of that; it would certainly be an update to my general understanding of the world if so, though I don’t think it would be likely to modify my opinion of “does government money for SpaceX have anything to do with Tesla suing for defamation?”
- ada1981 5y ago+1 for “oh no my spaceship”. Maybe that will be the podcast series name. Basically just want a roundup of shady moves from Elon & Jeff. Thing is, earth girls are easy, and with Grimes back on Tinder, Elon is going to need some big rockets to impress the Martian ladies.
- 5y ago
- aurizon 5y agoThis does need detailed management analysis from an ethics POV. IF the facts, as stated, are true, I can not think of any US Tesla manager taking this stance. In fact, if that fact was concealed and the customer lied to, the customer was right. Now is it possible, in the USA or China for a vehicle to be sold as pure and unsullied? Yes it is - if some one lied to the customer/Tesla that it was unsullied. I think this is illegal in the USA - is it also illegal in China - or business as usual in China? There is a Reddit thread called r/Chinesium which details a legion of low quality items entering into commerce that are unworthy of sale, that should have been rejected at production time or have inherent low quality workmanship. Thus Tesla needs to rebuild bridges in China, cease this Streisandish litigation and move on, making sure that there is never again a recurrence of any more cases like this. All this said, have there ever been any cases like this in the US production flow? I like Tesla, I like Elon, I like the way he acts and thinks, and I suspect he will deal with this with some sort of managerial imperative, might I say ramrod? I am not sure how much managerial control is exercised over Tesla China by Tesla US? Managers and the entire management culture in China seems to place a high degree of credence to 'face', or appearance. This leads to managers hiding errors instead of facing them and solving them - a bad practice.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- drcongo 5y agoSomeone needs to intervene in this ridiculous cult.
- impalallama 5y agoJust straight up suing the person who won a fraud case again them in court. Disgusting at every level on Tesla's part.
- darig 5y agoLooks like Elon followed Bezos into a retirement of suing people. Sad.
- bovermyer 5y agoYeah, this is immoral. Shameful, even. The person responsible for giving the order to sue should be punished appropriately, and Tesla should make a public apology.
- mdoms 5y agoI would bet my paycheque that person is Elon Musk.
- leobg 5y agoWell. There might be things we don't know. Things that this person who earns their living by writing clickable articles on the internet doesn't tell us, doesn't know, or doesn't care to know. Lawsuit documents often run in the hundreds of pages. And then there's evidence to consider. Anyone who proposes to know who is right and who is wrong in a lawsuit without having digested all of this material is simply gossiping. (In some cases, this applies even to the judge.)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Viliam1234 5y agoThe privacy settings on this website are like a minigame. Didn't have time to complete the puzzle, so just closed the tab.
- uslic001 5y agoOne of the many reasons I will never buy a Tesla. POS company.
- leobg 5y ago„Tesla policy is never to give in to false claims, even if we would lose, and never to fight true claims, even if we would win.“ —@elonmusk