--- title: "Tesla Is Reportedly Trying to Make People Delete Mean Posts About Elon Musk" description: "Tesla's solar energy subsidiary, Tesla Energy, reportedly asked its team of more than 20 employees to scan social media posts to find customer complaints." date: "2021-07-26" modified: "2021-07-26" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-delete-mean-posts-elon-musk" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Tesla" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "tesla" - "tesla energy" - "the digest" --- # Tesla Is Reportedly Trying to Make People Delete Mean Posts About Elon Musk ![Tesla's solar energy subsidiary, Tesla Energy, reportedly asked its team of more than 20 employees to scan social media posts to find customer complaints.]() *\Image: Daniel Oberhaus via Flickr / Futurism\* ## Thin Skin Tesla's solar energy subsidiary, Tesla Energy, reportedly asked a team of more than 20 employees to scan social media posts to find customer complaints, notably including ones that badmouthed Tesla CEO Elon Musk, an unnamed former employee [told *Insider*](). The company is even trying to get people on social media to delete the mean posts, according to *Insider*'s reporting. It's a strange and heavy-handed approach to cleaning up its reputation online — and perhaps indicative of issues that run a lot deeper within the company. ## Leave Elon Alone A team of nine was tasked with searching for negative posts abut Musk, according to *Insider*. The report aligns with a [January job posting]() for a "customer support specialist," who was tasked with addressing "social media escalations directed at the CEO." The team was meant to root out any bad press for the company on social media. "They would basically just look up #TeslaEnergy, #Elon, just anything that has to do with Tesla and energy and Elon," the former employee told *Insider*, who was even asked to wade through the internet for fuming customers in his "downtime." The former manager, as well as an unnamed Tesla Energy customer, also told the publication that it is much faster and effective to complain on social media than it is to go through the company's usual customer service pipeline. "She told me to go online and complain... on Twitter or Facebook, because she said the only thing this company listens to is social media sentiment," the customer told *Insider*, referring to the subsidiary's dedicated project manager. ## Ghosted Many other unhappy Tesla Energy customers were seemingly left out in the cold and ignored completely. Back in May, [*Insider* found]() that customers, many of which paid tens of thousands of dollars for solar roof installations, were either ghosted or sent in circles by customer service. Last year, Tesla decided to dissolve its PR department, so it's unlikely we'll ever get a real answer as to why its employees are scouring the web for mean posts about Musk. But the report does paint an ugly picture of the turmoil behind Tesla Energy's closed doors. **READ MORE:** [Tesla's solar division asks employees to scour social media for complaints about both the company and Elon Musk, trying to get customers to delete their posts, former employees say]() \[*Insider*\] **More on Tesla Energy:** *[Elon Musk Says Tesla Has Caused Him More Suffering Than Anything Else in His Life]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()