The Disney+ app has been removed from the video displays of some Tesla vehicles — with some drivers griping that they have been caught the middle of a nasty feud between CEO Elon Musk and Disney boss Bob Iger.
A Tesla owner took to Musk’s social media platform X and posted a screenshot of the vehicle’s video screen that shows the Disney+ app missing.
“So Disney+ has now been removed from Tesla vehicles,” the X user who goes by the account name “The Tesla Hoe” posted over the weekend.
“I’m assuming this is in retaliation to Disney pulling advertising from X (which they have every right to do).”
The Tesla owner lamented the fact that she will have to inform her “toddlers [that] we can’t watch Disney+ while in our Tesla and deal with their upset feelings because 2 grown men can’t have a civil discussion and move on.”
“This comes off like a temper tantrum,” @TheTeslaHoe continued. “And I feel like Tesla owners are now caught in the crossfire of something that is absolutely not their fault.”
Another Tesla fan who goes by the X user name “Whole Mars Catalog” confirmed that Disney+ was missing from his Model S.
Last week, the Tesla-centric news site Electrek reported that Tesla informed Disney of its decision to remove the Disney+ app from the video displays without explanation as to why it was making the move.
In a follow-up post, Tesla users were informed that they could still access Disney+ by manually typing the URL into the car’s web browser.
But the Disney+ app, which usually appeared alongside mainstay platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and TikTok, was hidden from view on the theater’s home screen.
The Post has sought comment from Disney and Tesla.
During an appearance at the DealBook Summit business conference Nov. 29, Musk told companies that stopped advertising on X to “go f–k yourself.”
Earlier that day, Iger told DealBook that a Musk post which appeared to endorse an antisemitic conspiracy theory about Jews promoting mass migration played a role in Disney’s decision to halt ads on X.
“By him taking the position that he took in quite a public manner, we just felt that the association with that position and Elon Musk and X was not necessarily a positive one for us,” Iger said.
Musk has denied that he is antisemitic.
Musk was asked about firms that ceased advertising on the platform in the wake of a Media Matters report which said that company ads were appearing alongside pro-Nazi content.
“If someone is going to blackmail me with money, go f–k yourself,” Musk said, specifically mentioning Iger.
A week after Musk’s DealBook appearance, he publicly called on Disney to fire Iger after it was alleged in a lawsuit that the Mouse House was running ads on rival social media platforms Facebook and Instagram even though those sites permitted child predators to target underage users.
“Bob Eiger thinks it’s cool to advertise next to child exploitation material. Real stand up guy,” Musk posted, as he misspelled the longtime media mogul’s name.
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