Yesterday afternoon, popular gadget reviewer Marques Brownlee tweeted out a link to an article on a Tesla fan site of new leaked photos of the upcoming, hotly anticipated Model 3 electric car. “Yo Tesla Model 3 looks better and better in every leaked photo,” Brownlee tweeted. “Gotta love the incremental updates.”
Tesla Model 3 Exterior and Interior (while super charging)
But the next day, Brownlee woke up to find that his tweet had been removed and replaced with this message: “This tweet from @MKBHD has been withheld in response to a report from the copyright holder.”
In an email to The Verge, Brownlee said that the photographer, You You Xue, requested the removal of Brownlee’s tweet on the grounds of copyright infringement. Brownlee followed up with a tweet wondering if the request was an attempt by Xue to promote his photography on Flickr.
@youyouxue Are you submitting copyright requests because you want people to link to your Flickr page, or…..?
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) June 23, 2017
On Reddit yesterday, Xue claims to have randomly spotted the Model 3 in San Matteo, California: “jumped straight out of the car and started snapping photos!” But since capturing the detailed shots, Xue has been highly protective of his images, even getting posts on Facebook removed as well.