Close Menu
Technology Mag

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    The 100+ best Prime Day deals under $100

    July 11, 2025

    100 Best Deals Under $100 This Prime Day—It Ends Tonight

    July 11, 2025

    Belkin is ending support for nearly all its Wemo smart home devices

    July 11, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Subscribe
    Technology Mag
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    • Home
    • News
    • Business
    • Games
    • Gear
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Security
    • Trending
    • Press Release
    Technology Mag
    Home » The FBI Is Investigating Attacks on Tesla as ‘Domestic Terrorism.’ Here’s Why That Matters
    Business

    The FBI Is Investigating Attacks on Tesla as ‘Domestic Terrorism.’ Here’s Why That Matters

    News RoomBy News RoomMarch 24, 20254 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Email

    There’s precedent for companies not only receiving information from law enforcement during domestic terrorism investigations, but also working directly with the FBI. German says this was particularly evident during the response to a wave of oil pipeline protests in the early 2010s.

    Records published by the news site Grist and Type Investigations found that the FBI considered one pipeline operator a “domain stakeholder” in one protest case, which gave the company “direct access to the White House” and privileged information. The company was also invited to strategize with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, National Guard, and local police. And there were conversations about how to “ensure coordination and resource management” not only among law enforcement officials, but with the company.

    A different pipeline constructor hired a firm to monitor and infiltrate protest groups and write intelligence reports, which were sometimes shared with federal law enforcement and local police, according to reporting by The Intercept. One of these pipeline operators briefed local police along its proposed pipeline route on how to possibly pursue criminal charges against organizers, Grist reported.

    Even after the protests waned, oil and gas companies remained close to police and the government. One Canadian pipeline company paid local Minnesotan police departments more than $5 million in 2020 and 2021 for policing pipeline protests. Since 2017, fossil fuel lobbyists have pushed more than 20 states to pass laws making disrupting “critical infrastructure” like oil and gas pipelines a criminal offense, according to records obtained by The Guardian.

    Though it’s unclear how the FBI’s current domestic terrorism investigations will play out, Musk and other Tesla executives could ultimately have similar access to and influence over them. When the cases go to court, Tesla could also be eligible for compensation from the government in the form of court-ordered restitution.

    Such funds are often used to pay the families of terrorism victims, but German tells WIRED that corporations are also eligible. In a successful criminal case, he says, he sees no reason why Tesla wouldn’t get compensated. Tesla could also be eligible for money from state-level terrorism victim compensation programs, which receive some funding from the federal government.

    Risks for Protesters

    Domestic terrorism investigations are often fraught. Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union have argued that the FBI routinely uses them to unfairly surveil activists and communities of color without adequate oversight.

    President Trump has said his administration is taking Tesla incidents very seriously. “People that get caught sabotaging Teslas will stand a very good chance of going to jail for up to twenty years, and that includes the funders,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Thursday. “WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!!!”

    Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s national security project, says that instead of “focusing on the most serious criminal conduct that harms life,” federal agencies have wasted resources and abused their authority by “treating alleged non-violent civil disobedience or vandalism as justification for abusive investigations of civil rights and other activists.”

    Historically, German says, the FBI has endorsed an idea called “radicalization theory,” which posits that the beliefs of extremists naturally escalate from moderate and widely held beliefs. That logic, he says, justifies the FBI casting a wide surveillance net, particularly when it comes to monitoring activists.

    “They suggest that anybody who’s got a similar ideology might be willing to commit the same kind of crime,” German explains. “We’ve seen a lot of abuse of FBI investigative authorities, particularly around domestic advocacy groups.”

    Five years ago, the FBI used the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to surveil people participating in Black Lives Matter protests, investigating whether they had ties to terrorists. The DOJ inspector general called the incident an example of the FBI’s “widespread non-compliance” with FISA rules.

    German claims that in this case, instead of focusing on people who are alleged to have committed arson or acts of violence, the FBI’s focus could ultimately be scrutinizing people who it thinks are expressing “anger or animosity towards Tesla or Elon Musk.”

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleGoogle is rolling out Gemini’s real-time AI video features
    Next Article Wildfires Are One of Hurricane Helene’s Lasting Legacies

    Related Posts

    A New Kind of AI Model Lets Data Owners Take Control

    July 11, 2025

    Linda Yaccarino Tried to Tame X. Now She’s Out as CEO

    July 10, 2025

    ‘People Are Going to Die’: A Malnutrition Crisis Looms in the Wake of USAID Cuts

    July 10, 2025

    Grok Is Spewing Antisemitic Garbage on X

    July 9, 2025

    OpenAI Poaches 4 High-Ranking Engineers From Tesla, xAI, and Meta

    July 9, 2025

    Volodymyr Zelensky’s Clothing Has Sparked a Polymarket Rebellion

    July 9, 2025
    Our Picks

    100 Best Deals Under $100 This Prime Day—It Ends Tonight

    July 11, 2025

    Belkin is ending support for nearly all its Wemo smart home devices

    July 11, 2025

    Hyundai Reveals the ‘Lightspeed’ Ioniq 6 N

    July 11, 2025

    HMD is ‘scaling back’ in the US, killing Nokia all over again

    July 11, 2025
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo
    Don't Miss
    Business

    A New Kind of AI Model Lets Data Owners Take Control

    By News RoomJuly 11, 2025

    A new kind of large language model, developed by researchers at the Allen Institute for…

    Prime Day Ends Tonight. We Have Nearly 300 Last-Chance Deals So You Can Save

    July 11, 2025

    Grok searches for Elon Musk’s opinion before answering tough questions

    July 11, 2025

    Razer’s got a new version of its popular DeathAdder Pro gaming mouse

    July 10, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    © 2025 Technology Mag. All Rights Reserved.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.