Reuters
FILE PHOTO: SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during a conversation with legendary game designer Todd Howard at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles
- Elon Musk is currently fighting a defamation case against cave diver Vernon Unsworth, who he referred to as "pedo guy" on Twitter.
- Musk's lawyers have repeatedly argued that reasonable people would not take Musk's insult seriously, partly because he broadcast it on Twitter.
- But Unsworth's lawyers say that Musk's account can be taken seriously, giving his infamous "funding secured" tweet - which resulted in $40 million in fines SEC - as an example.
- Musk's lawyers say that the Tesla CEO's Twitter account is filled with frivolous jokes, including tweets about being a Martian and arming people against the zombie apocalypse.
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Elon Musk is trying to use his most flippant tweets as evidence he didn't defame cave diver Vernon Unsworth when he called him "pedo guy" last year.
Musk's lawyers have repeatedly argued that reasonable people would not interpret Musk's insult as a factual statement about Unsworth. Last year they unsuccessfully tried to have the case dismissed on the grounds the Tesla CEO's comments could not be considered defamation because his insults were "over-the-top" and made on the "rough-and-tumble" platform of Twitter.
But Unsworth's lawyers have used Musk's infamous "funding secured" tweet as an example of a case where Musk's tweets have been taken seriously. Musk tweeted he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private in August 2018. He didn't, and his market-moving comment resulted in $40 million in fines from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Musk's lawyers responded that his "funding secured" tweet is irrelevant to the case and doesn't say much about how he uses Twitter more generally.
"Picking one tweet from Mr. Musk's over 9,000 and arguing that it demonstrates his use of Twitter to disseminate facts is highly misleading," the filing states. They then give several examples of other topics Musk has tweeted about:
- "An impending zombie apocalypse and a money-back guarantee on flamethrowers to fight them."
- "Rumors that he is a Martian."
- "Building a volcano lair like Dr. Evil, the villain in the 'Austin Powers' movies."
- "Launching SpaceX rockets at night because they are easier to fake in the dark."
Musk has also claimed that when he tweeted Unsworth was a "pedo guy" he was not literally calling him a pedophile, as "pedo guy" was a common insult used to describe a "creepy old man" when he was growing up in South Africa.