2024-08-14 03:40:50
There are calls for a boycott of Elon Musk’s company Tesla because of his political stance. A survey shows that many see this as justified.
Tesla founder Elon Musk continues to provoke a stir with controversial posts on his platform X. Some advertising customers have already withdrawn. He is now openly a supporter of the Republicans and has even organized an interview with Donald Trump. But his other company, the electric car company Tesla, is also coming under pressure. The drugstore chain Rossmann has announced that it will no longer buy vehicles from its electric car brand Tesla in the future. Many people in Germany also see it that way.
In a survey conducted by “Stern” and the opinion research institute Forsa, 47 percent of respondents said they believed a boycott was right. 37 percent were against it, and 16 percent did not want to comment.
According to “Stern”, voters of the Greens (72 percent), the SPD (61 percent) and the CDU/CSU (47 percent) in particular think a Tesla boycott is right. FDP supporters are more critical of such an action (44 percent), as are those who are close to the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance (47 percent). AfD voters (67 percent) also decided against it. In East Germany, where the AfD receives a particularly large number of votes, 41 percent think a boycott is right and 41 percent think it is wrong.
Musk repeatedly refers to the right to freedom of expression, which he wants to uphold on the X platform. That is why he has unblocked accounts that had previously been blocked by the company for inciting hatred or other reasons. Shortly before his interview with Donald Trump, the EU Commission warned Elon Musk’s online platform X of violating European law against hate speech and calls for violence online. The requirements of the DSA (“Digital Services Act”) also apply to Musk himself as a user with 190 million follower accounts, Breton emphasized in a letter.
The survey data was collected by the market and opinion research institute Forsa for “Stern” and RTL Deutschland by telephone on August 8 and 9, 2024. The data basis was 1,001 respondents. The statistical error tolerance is +/- 3 percentage points. The question was: “Elon Musk, who runs the car company Tesla, among other things, is currently being criticized for extreme political statements. A German company has therefore now announced that it will no longer buy Tesla cars. Do you think that is right or is such a decision unjustified?”