
Musk, SEC Settle Legal Fight over His Tweets About Tesla - AndrewBissell
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-26/musk-sec-settle-legal-fight-over-his-tweets-about-tesla-juykzbwq
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rhizome
In other news, the case where he's being sued for calling the cave rescuer a
pedophile is still on.

[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-26/musk-
must...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-26/musk-must-face-
cave-rescuer-lawsuit-over-pedo-guy-tweet)

~~~
dmix
Defamation is really hard to prove in court. Laws around freedom of expression
are pretty solid.

I'm curious what specific damages the person is claiming against his
livelihood as a result of an insulting tweet he received in response to his
own first initiated insult towards the defendant...

~~~
stcredzero
_Defamation is really hard to prove in court_

In the days of old. Over Twitter, it can be a lot easier. It's not only
public, it's a written record.

 _I 'm curious what specific damages the person is claiming against his
livelihood as a result of a tweet..._

Certain subject areas are considered _per se_ defamation in many
jurisdictions. You don't have to prove the damages. The damage is assumed.
Pedophilia is one such subject area.

Basically, Musk acts like someone who doesn't know much about the law.

~~~
dmix
You could argue Musk wasn't really making a specific attack against the person
related to any specific action/activity he did in his life (for example
volunteer rescue work helping children) (AFAIK). It could easily be perceived
as just a general insult Musk made in response to an attack.

Rather than Musk's intention was actually proposing he is a pedophile because
of his involvement in x... Which would be far easier for the 'victim' to
disprove as a false statement and connected to specific work and specific
losses (ie, his volunteer work which he draws emotional happiness) the person
might then loose out on said work in the future because he was falsely labeled
a pedophile.

The latter situation is usually how it'd have to work. Something concrete and
specific.

Otherwise it's perfectly legally to insult people on the Internet and hurt
their feelings.

~~~
stcredzero
_You could argue Musk wasn 't really making a specific attack against the
person related to any specific action/activity he did in his life (for example
volunteer rescue work helping children) (AFAIK). It could easily be perceived
as just a general insult Musk made in response to an attack._

In Texas, the standard is, "How would the statement be perceived by an
average, reasonable person?" Could the statement be reasonably interpreted as
a straight-up accusation of pedophilia? I don't think Musk is safe in any
jurisdiction.

 _Which would be far easier for the 'victim' to disprove as a false statement_

Not how it works. The plaintiff doesn't have to prove anything. The burden of
proof is on the defendant (the one who said the thing) and being able to show
the statement is true is an automatic defense.

 _The latter situation is usually how it 'd have to work. Something concrete
and specific._

For the particular insult/statement, it doesn't work that way. It's defamation
_per se._ It's assumed to be damaging.

 _Otherwise it 's perfectly legally to insult people on the Internet and hurt
their feelings._

Defamation is one of the things you can't do.

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sschueller
Maybe Twitter should add a feature where all your tweets can go via a 3rd
party which can edit the tweet before it goes live.

Then congress can pass a rule that all of a presidents tweets need to go via
white house council. Not that that would make much of a difference...

~~~
dexwiz
Most 3rd party software used for social media management has this feature.

~~~
pbreit
Which is why they have pathetic media presences.

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firasd
When I see how successful people like Elon Musk, Trump, and (lower level
success) Martin Shkreli can't stop inviting legal jeopardy over their tweets
it makes me realize that self-expression is a hell of a drug.

~~~
driven20
What's the point of success if you can't even speak your mind. Second thought,
are you even a successful person if you're not free to speak your mind and
live in constant fear of saying the wrong thing.

~~~
braythwayt
There should be no level of “success” that lets you speak your mind without
fear of consequence. When what’s on your mind are things like baseless
accusations of pedophilia, for example, you ought to be afraid of “saying the
wrong thing.”

That’s healthy.

As for Musk’s SEC violations, he chose to run a publicly traded company,
nobody put a gun to his head. He was already wealthy, he decided that the
upside of turbocharging the electric car revolution and the exploration of
space were worth the constraints of dealing with regulatory bodies.

His choice, his consequences. We aren’t talking about him being fined for
saying that he thinks his country’s Dear Leader looks like a deflated pumpkin.
Nobody should live in fear of saying that.

~~~
kitsunesoba
Just to be clear, only Tesla is public. SpaceX is private and Musk has
repeatedly expressed that he intends for it remain that way until regular
trips to/from Mars are the norm.

~~~
braythwayt
Thank you!

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dayaz36
Everyone here is putting an anti-musk spin on this that's not based in
reality. SEC just LOST the contempt case against Elon. The agreement is just a
clarification of the existing settlement. Elon isn't held in contempt and is
not paying a fine or conceding to anything. He had all the leverage in the
negotiations and the sec knew this, which is why they agreed to settle without
Elon conceding to a single thing

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Causality1
For the love of god can somebody shut Elon Musk up before he ruins everything?
He'd be on track to warrant having statues of him in future public parks if he
could stop calling people pedophiles on Twitter.

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swagasaurus-rex
Maybe we live in a reality where even the noblest and greatest of our heroes
are just normal people who lose their temper and occasionally say and do out
of character things.

~~~
simple_phrases
I follow hundreds of normal people who do not have public outbursts, nor do
they make baseless accusations of pedophilia against people they don't like.
Unfortunately, such things aren't out of character for Musk, they're par for
the course.

Somehow these normal people I know are able to hold themselves to a higher
standard.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I’ve seen the behavior mentioned (public outbursts, baseless allegations) from
friends, family, coworkers, owners of companies worth hundreds of millions of
dollars, and con men (literal confidence men).

Standards mean something until they don’t. People are fragile, and not always
handled with care. If you’re surprised by these sorts of “deviations from the
norm”, I assure you they exist and are more frequent than your social circle
would lead you to believe.

