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Images have been going around online that claim to show Tesla cars defaced with swastikas, following Elon Musk’s actions at Trump’s inauguration rally, where he performed a gesture that was likened to a Nazi salute.
A photo of a white Tesla parked in Vienna and defaced with a large, red swastika is doing the rounds on social media.It’s been shared with captions suggesting that Tesla owners and their cars are likely to be targeted following the recent, highly controversial actions of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.The image has also appeared on Reddit, where similar claims were made that the car in question has been “upgraded” to fit with Musk, hinting that the vandalism took place recently.Other social media users who own Teslas have shared the image and expressed their concern about what will happen if they drive their vehicle in Austria, blaming Musk for the supposed danger.The tech billionaire shocked the world when he made two gestures at US President Donald Trump’s inauguration rally, which were likened to a Nazi salute.Musk greeted crowds twice by thumping his chest before extending his right arm forward with his palm facing down. Many criticised him for evoking the Nazi salute, while others claimed it didn’t carry any political weight.Regardless, the fallout against Musk quickly spread on social media: for example, some of the posts sharing the photo of the defaced Tesla on X also contain the hashtag #SwastiCar, a trend that has been growing on social media in an effort to boycott Tesla.A reverse image search of the image though shows us that it doesn’t have anything to do with the recent backlash against Musk.It was taken in November 2023 and published as part of a story about a series of vandalism attacks in Vienna, according to news reports at the time.The vandalism wasn’t related to Elon Musk at all, and it appears the Tesla in the picture wasn’t targeted for any particular reason. Fact-checkers from other outlets have also arrived at the same conclusion.Anti-Tesla sentiment grips Europe and beyondNevertheless, it is true that Tesla stores and showrooms have been defaced following Musk’s actions at Trump’s inauguration. In recent weeks, reports have emerged of vandals spraying swastikas and anti-fascist slogans at a Tesla building in The Hague, while near Berlin, an image of Musk’s gesture and the word “Heil” was projected onto the wall of a Tesla factory.There are also seemingly more reputable reports of Teslas belonging to individuals in the US being defaced, as well as threats to their owners.Some Teslas have indeed had swastikas and the word “Nazi” spraypainted on them, according to US news outlets, while others, particularly Tesla Cybertrucks, have been covered in “SwastiCar” stickers as part of the same campaign going around on social media.To try defend themselves, some Tesla owners have started attaching their own stickers to their vehicles with slogans claiming that they bought their car secondhand (and therefore did not “fund” Musk) or that they bought it before Musk’s recent negative publicity.Aside from vandalism, Tesla has seen its sales slump across Europe following Musk’s actions.Tesla car sales dropped by 59% year-on-year in Germany in January, according to the country’s Federal Motor Transport Authority. It also saw sales dip in France and the UK by 63% and 12% respectively.Some have linked the company’s losses to Musk’s embrace of far-right political figures, his amplification of misinformation on social media, and his close alliance with Trump, who recently appointed him head of the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency.Musk routinely either regurgitates conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated claims online, or boosts controversial claims made by others by responding to them with single-word messages of agreement, which then get shared with his millions of followers.
