
Elon Musk never sought approval for a single Tesla tweet, U.S. SEC tells judge - mikedh
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-musk-sec/elon-musk-never-sought-approval-for-a-single-tesla-tweet-u-s-sec-tells-judge-idUSKCN1R001J
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fillskills
What is really sad about the state of affairs is that SEC is suing Musk out of
spite (seemingly) and not bothered by a President whose tweets are changing
fortunes of multiple corporations. For reference SEC's mission statement: "The
mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect
investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate
capital formation."

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dosy
Right. Does anyone have any idea why the SEC has such a huge justice-hunger
for Musk? Musk definitely gets a lot of government contracts and money, and is
very connected to defence, and lobbying. Why is someone that useful /
influential becoming a target of such intense focus and interest? Is it a
personal grudge at the SEC (why?) or from above? Is it a way to laterally
apply pressure on Musk regarding SpaceX?

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londons_explore
My guess is some of the short sellers have friends who work at the SEC.

That and Musk runs his company like a child, which allows it to be nimble, but
also means every action doesn't get as much scrutiny as they expect.

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bjl
Or, rather than postulating some shadowy conspiracy theory, we can guess that
the SEC is a law enforcement agency, and Musk has repeatedly (and in plain
sight) violated the law.

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glvn
I don't think anyone expected Musk to follow that directive. His comments
after the initial rulling signaled he didn't really care for the SEC telling
him what to do, followed by a tweet about "memes" that IMO was to just troll
anyone watching his Twitter account.

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ivraatiems
The court almost certainly expects him to follow that directive. Provided that
it is persuaded he didn't, he could be in some nasty trouble.

In fairness, no reasonable person would _predict_ that Musk would follow it. I
imagine that played a role in the SEC's decision to request it. (What trap is
better than one the victim agrees to enter of their own accord, in public?)
Musk, not being a terribly reasonable person in this area, probably assumed it
wouldn't be an issue for him. If so, that assumption may bite him.

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danso
The SEC complaint can be found here:

[https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5775155-Reply-to-
Res...](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5775155-Reply-to-Response-to-
Motion.html)

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de_watcher
From the point of view of the worldwide public, suing over twitter posts looks
ridiculously funny.

So better that than something else. That will train Musk a bit for later.

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dec0dedab0de
I'm having a hard time understanding this. Whats is the point of being CEO if
you need approval to speak? Anyone investing in Tesla these days are basically
investing in Musk. If they dont like the way he runs the business they can
sell, or they can vote him out.

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LiquidSky
The tweet approval is a requirement of the settlement Musk signed with the SEC
for his previous instance of securities fraud.

CEOs aren’t kings, they have laws to follow. Musk could have avoided all of
this by simply not engaging in the behavior that earned him this forced
oversight.

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crb002
SEC is asking for a First Amendment smackdown.

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craftinator
Regulate until everyone worth regulating goes elsewhere.

