The Dawn Project organization said Twitter declined to promote a post criticizing Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system (FSD). The story is reported by The Verge.
On the screenshot provided by the group, social media moderators say the tweet breaches the ban on political content.
The refusal to promote the post is the latest in a strange, long-running feud between billionaire Elon Musk and The Dawn Project’s head Dan O’Dowd.
In August, Tesla sent the organization a letter urging it to remove a video in which a robot car on autopilot runs over child-sized mannequins. The video no longer appears on the group’s YouTube page.
The Dawn Project’s full-page advertisement in The New York Times still exists.
The group’s statements also raise questions about Twitter’s advertising policy after покупки by Musk’s company.
O’Dowd called the decision not to promote the group’s post a troubling sign.
“The drive to ban advertising content that criticizes Musk’s Tesla Full Self-Driving software raises serious questions about its commitment to free speech,” he noted.
Twitter did not respond to requests for comment. This may be linked to mass layoffs at Musk’s company, also affecting the public relations department.
The social network’s support page states:
“Twitter globally prohibits promoting political content. We have made this decision based on our belief that the reach of such messages should be earned, not bought”.
Earlier this year, O’Dowd ran an unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign regarding Tesla. He criticised FSD and said that his tests revealed critical deficiencies in the technology.
Also in January, the head of The Dawn Project placed an advertisement denouncing FSD in The New York Times. He offered $10,000 to whoever first named “another commercial product from a global corporation in which a critical failure occurs every eight minutes”.
Tesla fans say that O’Dowd runs Green Hills Software, which collaborates with some competing automakers, including GM, BMW and Ford. They say the billionaire is financially invested in tarnishing Musk’s company.
Elon Musk responded to The Dawn Project via Twitter, saying that “no one has died using FSD”. He also called Green Hills Software “a pile of junk”.
Earlier, in August, a Tesla fan proposed testing the Full Self-Driving system on children. A Verge journalist asked him not to.
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