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Elon Musk Rival; Henrik Fisker Quits Twitter For Instagram
Less than 24 hours after Twitter’s board accepted Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyout offer, the accounts of most automakers and their executives remain active on the social media platform, but one has left in protest.
Henrik Fisker; the founder of electric vehicle startup Fisker Inc., called it quits shortly after the deal was announced and informed his followers he’d be using Instagram in the future.
“Please follow me on IG from now on if you want updates. Thanks. #Fisker #Love #EV #ESG #ClimateCrisis #follow,” Fisker tweeted before deleting his account.
Henrik Fisker had 86,600 followers at the time, compared to Musk’s 84.6 million.
Fisker didn’t mention Musk’s takeover before his departure from the platform, nor did he address the move on his Instagram account, but he has been particularly active on that platform, with three posts in the past 24 hours.
But the account for Fisker Inc. on Twitter remained active as of Tuesday morning.
Fisker’s first Instagram post following his departure from Twitter was a video of him test-driving the vehicle, called the Ocean, at Magna’s test track, with one commenter writing “Damn!!! that’s almost as fast as you running away from Elon on Twitter!”
Followed by a speech about why he left Twitter. Fisker said he does not want his “free speech to be actively managed or controlled by a competitor” which many of his followers nodded in affirmative.
Musk and Fisker have been on-again, off-again rivals for years. In 2008, Tesla sued Fisker, who was previously known for his work on exotic sports cars, saying he and another individual stole Tesla’s design ideas and other trade secrets. (Fisker claimed victory in that suit after it went to arbitration.)
Last year, that rivalry was resurrected when Fisker’s company announced plans to roll out an electric vehicle by 2023 in a deal with Foxconn. The Fisker Ocean SUV, the company’s first car, is due to begin production in the fourth quarter of 2022. That vehicle will also be the first all-electric papal transport vehicle (or Popemobile, if you prefer).
