The Twitter account of one of Tesla’s most vocal opponents has been suspended after he tweeted internal emails and photos he claimed were proof of flawed manufacturing processes at the automaker’s battery factory.
Martin Tripp, who Tesla fired after accusing him of industrial sabotage, has spent the better part of the past month waging a campaign against the company. Posting the pictures, though, one of which seemingly containing Elon Musk’s email address, violated Twitter’s terms of service.
In this Tweetstorm, Tripp accused the company of installing batteries with damaged cells into certain cars, listing the vehicle identification numbers of those cars. He also tweeted photos of a parking lot that he said was full of Tesla’s scrap and waste products, which are supposed to be stored in climate-controlled warehouses:
Tesla, in comments to CNBC, said Tripp’s claims are false and there have been no battery safety issues on the Model 3.
Tripp and Tesla have been playing a legal game of chess for several months. In June, Musk sent an email to Tesla employees claiming that a disgruntled worker had broken into the company’s computer systems and “conducted quite extensive and damaging sabotage to our operations.” The company later sued Tripp, alleging he stole gigabytes worth of data.
Tripp, in mid-July, filed a formal complaint with the SEC, seeking whistleblower status. Later that month, he countersued the company, alleging defamation.
Tesla has repeatedly denied all of Tripp’s allegations.