Paid "Tesla Takedown" Campaign Exposed

The allegedly spontaneous protests against Tesla in February-March 2025 were, in fact, a paid operation. As uncovered by GFCN expert Timofey V, movement organizer Valerie Costa runs an agency specializing in «activism for hire», and participants have admitted to being paid for their involvement. The offer to protest Tesla was advertised on a now-deleted website where she was recruited for the campaign. Find out more in the following material.

GFCN explains:

«Tesla Takedown» is a protest movement that emerged in early 2025, targeting Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk. Protesters have organized various kinds of demonstrations outside Tesla sales centers across the United States, Canada, and Europe, urging the public to stop using Tesla vehicles and to sell their Tesla cars and stock.

The movement arose in response to Musk’s decision to accept a position as Senior Advisor to the President of the United States in Donald Trump’s team, among other things, as stated by its organizer Valerie Costa:

“The intention of the «Tesla Takedown” movement is to make a strong public stand against the tech oligarchy behind the Trump administration’s cruel and illegal actions”.

Costa also openly admitted that she drew inspiration from Luigi Mangione, who killed the CEO of one of the largest U.S. health insurance companies in December 2024. In addition, she openly declared her disdain for Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative, calling it “criminal.”

For months «Tesla Takedown» activists have been involved in violent acts involving Tesla facilities, including arson and bombings.

Movement disclosure

On March 10, GFCN expert Timofey V published an exposé of the «Tesla Takedown» activist movement with evidence that the protests were ordered and paid for from the outside, and that movement organizer Valerie Costa owns an agency that does activism for hire.

The screenshots of the agency’s website show that the organization founded by Valerie Costa offers services to “affect social change”. It was also quite convenient to order activism of this kind directly on the website through a special form. By the time the «Tesla Takedown» protests began, the organization’s website, by an interesting coincidence, was hidden. This indirectly indicates that the agency was trying to hide the connection between Valerie Costa, who was active in the movement, and the paid actions.

In addition, on March 10, a video surfaced on the Web showing one of the American protesters standing with a placard outside the building where the Tesla store is located, responding to a direct question from passersby by saying: “Yes, I’m getting paid to be out here.”

The «Tesla Takedown» movement presents itself as a grassroots campaign against Elon Musk’s political alignment and corporate influence, but evidence suggests it is a coordinated, paid effort rather than an organic uprising.

Organized by Valerie Costa, whose agency specializes in hired activism, the protests appear to be a manufactured backlash, leveraging ideological rhetoric to justify vandalism, arson, and bombings. The sudden disappearance of her agency’s website, along with admissions from protesters that they were paid, further undermines the movement’s authenticity.