Gary Zhou 
Green Hills Software founder and CEO Dan O’Dowd, who previously ran for Senate in an attempt to push his efforts to ban Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system, recently complained about his rejected advertisement on Twitter. O’Dowd noted that his anti-Tesla FSD ad was rejected by Twitter because it supposedly violated the company’s policy against “political” advertising.
O’Dowd, who claims that he designed and wrote software that never fails and cannot be hacked, has run several controversial campaigns against Tesla and its FSD program. The Green Hills Software CEO has been operating his anti-Tesla campaign through The Dawn Project, an anti-Tesla advocacy group. The Dawn Project has pushed several campaigns, such as ads and videos calling for Tesla’s driver-assist system to be banned.
As noted in a report from The Verge, The Dawn Project had submitted an advertisement for Twitter featuring a tweet from O’Dowd which stated that “Elon Musk’s Full Self-Driving will still run over children” and that eventually, “Tesla staff and director could be liable” for “manslaughter.” The tweet also included an image of a full-page ad that ran in The New York Times, which led with the words “Don’t Be A Tesla Crash Test Dummy.” Twitter declined to promote O’Dowd’s anti-Tesla FSD tweet.
O’Dowd’s tweet about the topic has not been taken down by Twitter. However, O’Dowd has complained that since the post cannot be promoted on the social media platform, its engagement would be limited. In a statement to the publication, O’Dowd noted that Twitter’s rejection raises serious questions about Musk’s commitment to free speech. “The move to prohibit the advertising of content criticizing Musk’s Tesla Full Self-Driving software raises serious questions over his commitment to free speech,” O’Dowd said.
While Musk has seemingly considered O’Dowd as a nuisance for the most part, Tesla has pursued more serious efforts against the Green Hills Software CEO in the past. In August, following The Dawn Project’s efforts to push the narrative that Tesla’s FSD software will “mow down children” regularly, Tesla issued a cease and desist letter. O’Dowd, for his part, announced on Twitter that he would work towards banning FSD even more.
So far, O’Dowd’s anti-Tesla efforts have been largely unsuccessful. He launched a campaign for Senate earlier this year while admitting that his efforts are solely focused on his anti-Tesla crusade. O’Dowd, despite spending substantially in his Senate campaign, finished in 10th place with 74,916 votes in the June primary.
