Elon Musk's Rival Hastily Deletes Twitter Account: 'I Do Not Want My Free Speech to Be Actively Managed'
The two went head to head in the past decade in the EV arena.
By Emily Rella •
Ever since rumors began about the possibility of Elon Musk buying Twitter — which became confirmed when the news was made official on Monday — many have wondered whether or not those in opposition to Musk and vision would remain active on the social media platform.
Musk, who purchased Twitter for around $43 billion, has had a longtime auto rival in Henrik Fisker, head of EV company Fisker Inc.
Many noticed that Fisker's Twitter account was wiped late Monday, which was confirmed via an Instagram post that explained what was going on in the caption alongside the photo of a car that said "How it's made matters."
"I believe 100% in free speech. But I do not want my free speech to be actively managed or controlled by a competitor," Fisker wrote. "And I do not want a competitor to determine how my followers experience Fisker as we grow our company. #Fisker #Love #EV."
Related: Tesla vs. Fisker: Which Electric Vehicle Stock is a Better Buy?
Many seemed to disagree with Fisker in the comments.
"This is a bad judgement call from you, you should promote free speech instead of acting against it," one user wrote. "Sincerely, a shareholder."
"You don't believe in free speech if you're leaving because of Elon," stated another. "Period."
The pair of car buffs have some deep-rooted history with one another.
Fisker, who joined Tesla as an employee in 2007 to work on the initial Model S vehicle, was sued by the company in 2008 after Tesla alleged that he stole design technology and used it to help develop vehicles in his newly launched company, Fisker Coachbuild.
The competition between Fisker and Musk then heated up in the early 2010s when both were working towards disrupting the EV market, with Fisker actually bringing his company's car (the Karma hybrid) to market before the Model S in 2011.
Related: Tesla Has Reportedly Been Using Bots Since 2013 to Manipulate Stock Prices
But a series of unfortunate events, including Fisker's battery supplier going bankrupt and a massive shipment of cars lost due to a factory being destroyed during Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey (an estimated $30 million loss), led to Fisker's 2013 departure from his own company and its imminent shuttering shortly thereafter.
Musk, at this time, had begun to thrive as Tesla became the most well-known EV company in the game turning its first-ever quarterly profit of $15 million in Q1 of that same year.
Fisker then founded Fisker Inc. in 2016 in an effort to shift away from hybrids and focus on full EVS, the first of which (the Ocean SUV) is slated to begin production this November.
As of Wednesday morning, the Twitter account for Fisker Inc. was still up and running.
