Tesla has removed Disney+ from some of its vehicles as Elon Musk wages an online battle with Disney CEO Bob Iger. The dispute began when Disney pulled its advertising on X after Musk endorsed and amplified anti-Semitic content, for which he eventually apologised.
Every week there’s a new drama involving Elon Musk on X, formerly known as Twitter. Sometimes it affects Tesla indirectly, but this time it affects it directly.
The current drama stems from Musk’s endorsement of an anti-Semitic post on X, for which he initially didn’t apologise, although a week later he admitted it was a mistake. He apologised again, but was already attacking Disney. The result was a massive backlash, with many companies, including Apple and Disney, stopping advertising on X.
Musk took particular issue with frequent right-wing target Disney – in the interview where he apologised for the tweet, he attacked advertisers for pulling out almost in the same breath.
He also decided to single out Disney, which he sees as “infected with the woke mind virus”, by telling advertisers to “go fuck yourself” and then saying “Hey, Bob”, directed at CEO Bob Iger, who Musk believed was in the room.
Musk has in the past supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was in a big fight with Disney. Now Musk appears to have made another move against Disney, but this time through an unrelated public company he runs: Tesla.
Electrek has learned from a source that Tesla informed Disney+ last week that it was removing its native app from the Tesla Theatre in its cars, without giving a reason.
A few days later, Tesla told Disney that it was only removing the app for Tesla owners who had never used it before.
The carmaker now appears to have followed through on that threat, as many Tesla owners are reporting that they no longer see the Disney+ app in Tesla Theatre. Others, presumably those who have used the app before, are still seeing it available in their cars.
Tesla originally added Disney+ to Tesla Threatre in its 2021 holiday update.
Electrek’s take.
We’re told that Tesla didn’t officially give Disney a reason, but the message was sort of “read between the lines”.
If that’s really the case, and Elon told Tesla to remove Disney+ from its cars because he thinks it’s too woke, and he’s pissed that it pulled its advertising from the X, then that’s some childish temper tantrum nonsense.
Personally, I believe it because of the chronology of the situation. It seemed rushed, with Tesla first saying they were pulling the app and then changing it to only remove it from cars of owners who had never used it before, probably realising it would negatively affect their owners.
But even then, what if some Tesla owners have never used it but plan to eventually? And why is a public company with many stakeholders taking revenge on the private company Twitter/X’s perceived “enemies”?
This is so stupid. Not your best moment, Elon.
