The Fake Poll That Musk Sold as Truth
Elon Musk amplified a manipulated poll to fabricate Tesla’s popularity in Germany. Over 250,000 votes came from just two US-based IP addresses, deception masquerading as influence.
In the early hours of 18 March 2025, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared a post with his 183 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, celebrating what appeared to be an overwhelming endorsement of his company’s electric vehicles among German consumers1. The post, featuring a German flag and a link to an online poll conducted by T-Online, claimed that 70 per cent of Germans would buy a Tesla. It was an extraordinary turnaround for a company that had been struggling with European sales and reputational setbacks.
Yet, within hours, the validity of this claim began to unravel. A closer examination of the poll revealed irregularities so glaring that T-Online, one of Germany’s largest online news platforms, took the unprecedented step of halting the survey.
The reason: manipulation.
According to a report published by T-Online2, the original results of the non-representative poll suggested that only a mere three per cent of respondents were willing to buy a Tesla, while 94 per cent stated they …