20 ms·

He doesn't need to delete it, but if he is going to post market moving information (like production for 2019 is not 400K but 500K) he'd get the approved by some

He doesn't need to delete it, but if he is going to post market moving information (like production for 2019 is not 400K but 500K) he'd get the approved by someone else like Tesla's GC.

minimaxir 8y ago
Incidentally Tesla's new GC has only been on the job for 5 days after the previous GC left two months into the job. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/20/tesla-replaces-general-counsel-dane-butswinkas.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/20/tesla-replaces-general-couns...
- femto113 8y ago
  It's possible this isn't a coincidence, the tweet in question seems to have come out just before the last GC left, I wonder if it sparked a conflict.
zebraflask 8y ago
On the other hand, how is that market-moving given Elon's very public history of stirring the pot? You expect this from him.
- michaelt 8y ago
  I think for most crimes, saying "But I have a well known history of doing this" would make prosecutors less lenient, not more.
  - zebraflask 8y ago
    The legality is above my pay grade and will have to be deferred to the experts. Just from an economic line of thought, even a cursory look at Tesla and Elon's history of public statements would make a reasonable investor think "Gee, the CEO talks a lot. Maybe don't read too much into it."
    - mcguire 8y ago
      On the other hand, unreasonable fans will listen and will move the stock, so a reasonable investor might want to pay attention.
    - jrumbut 8y ago
      The entire point of this law is so you can get accurate information to decide on your investments. Otherwise you (the investing public) are going to say "well he could have a great factory, or he could be spouting off again, guess I'll keep the money under the mattress." It would make it very hard to raise money to do big things.
      - zebraflask 8y ago
        Have a good point, I didn't consider it that way.
- detaro 8y ago
  No, you expect that a top representative of a publicly traded company obeys the law on official company channels. E.g. if your job is to trade on Tesla based on newly announced information, ignoring facts from such a message might very well get you in financial trouble if it turns out you shouldn't have ignored it and your clients loose money because of that.
  - hopler 8y ago
    Channels don't matter. Lying to investors does. Private company CEOs can talk shit as long as all the investors know it's shit
    - MBCook 8y ago
      The SEC disagrees.
djakjxnanjak 8y ago
It seems like Elon lacks the ability to control his behavior when he can tweet based on a momentary impulse. Elon has many bright ideas but not every notion of his is appropriate for public consumption. He ought to hand over the credentials to a PR or even a law firm so he can send all his tweets through them. And ask them to change the password.
- SimbaOnSteroids 8y ago
  It wouldn't be too hard to give him a twitter clone app that flows through a middleman before going live, git pull requests for twitter if you will.
  - mabbo 8y ago
    I've been saying for years that Twitter ought to be offering that as a paid-for feature. They don't even have to charge much for it. Even something as simple as "All tweets have a 120 second delay during which time the following users will be pinged, shown the tweet, and given veto powers on it". I'd pay for it just to have my wife be able to say "Really? You want to tweet another picture of the cat? No."
    - keerthiko 8y ago
      I could see from an ideological perspective Twitter's entire mission being to delete the middleman and the moderating PR managers and public statement lawyer sanitation of everything public figures ever say, which was the only way laypeople heard anything a famous person ever said (that or tabloid gossip "overheard"s). I can respect that ideology, but it of course comes with its own set of problems. Personally I'm amused and ok with famous people facing the consequences of voicing their opinions, and also them getting roasted by normal civilians in public thanks to twitter.
      - afiori 8y ago
        > which was the only way laypeople heard anything a famous person ever said (that or tabloid gossip "overheard"s). I get that twitter main usage is this, but you can accomplish that with literally any social media/personal website. What twitter really facilitates is seeing feeds from random people and famous people responses to other (famous or not) people.
matz1 8y ago
Then couldn't someone at Tesla council just say, yes we review and approved this tweet ?

He doesn't need to delete it, but if he is going to post market moving information (like production for 2019 is not 400K but 500K) he'd get the approved by someone else like Tesla's GC.

minimaxir 8y ago

Incidentally Tesla's new GC has only been on the job for 5 days after the previous GC left two months into the job. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/20/tesla-replaces-general-counsel-dane-butswinkas.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/20/tesla-replaces-general-couns...

femto113 8y ago
It's possible this isn't a coincidence, the tweet in question seems to have come out just before the last GC left, I wonder if it sparked a conflict.

zebraflask 8y ago

On the other hand, how is that market-moving given Elon's very public history of stirring the pot? You expect this from him.

michaelt 8y ago
I think for most crimes, saying "But I have a well known history of doing this" would make prosecutors less lenient, not more.
- zebraflask 8y ago
  The legality is above my pay grade and will have to be deferred to the experts. Just from an economic line of thought, even a cursory look at Tesla and Elon's history of public statements would make a reasonable investor think "Gee, the CEO talks a lot. Maybe don't read too much into it."
  - mcguire 8y ago
    On the other hand, unreasonable fans will listen and will move the stock, so a reasonable investor might want to pay attention.
  - jrumbut 8y ago
    The entire point of this law is so you can get accurate information to decide on your investments. Otherwise you (the investing public) are going to say "well he could have a great factory, or he could be spouting off again, guess I'll keep the money under the mattress." It would make it very hard to raise money to do big things.
    - zebraflask 8y ago
      Have a good point, I didn't consider it that way.
detaro 8y ago
No, you expect that a top representative of a publicly traded company obeys the law on official company channels. E.g. if your job is to trade on Tesla based on newly announced information, ignoring facts from such a message might very well get you in financial trouble if it turns out you shouldn't have ignored it and your clients loose money because of that.
- hopler 8y ago
  Channels don't matter. Lying to investors does. Private company CEOs can talk shit as long as all the investors know it's shit
  - MBCook 8y ago
    The SEC disagrees.

djakjxnanjak 8y ago

It seems like Elon lacks the ability to control his behavior when he can tweet based on a momentary impulse. Elon has many bright ideas but not every notion of his is appropriate for public consumption. He ought to hand over the credentials to a PR or even a law firm so he can send all his tweets through them. And ask them to change the password.

SimbaOnSteroids 8y ago
It wouldn't be too hard to give him a twitter clone app that flows through a middleman before going live, git pull requests for twitter if you will.
- mabbo 8y ago
  I've been saying for years that Twitter ought to be offering that as a paid-for feature. They don't even have to charge much for it. Even something as simple as "All tweets have a 120 second delay during which time the following users will be pinged, shown the tweet, and given veto powers on it". I'd pay for it just to have my wife be able to say "Really? You want to tweet another picture of the cat? No."
  - keerthiko 8y ago
    I could see from an ideological perspective Twitter's entire mission being to delete the middleman and the moderating PR managers and public statement lawyer sanitation of everything public figures ever say, which was the only way laypeople heard anything a famous person ever said (that or tabloid gossip "overheard"s). I can respect that ideology, but it of course comes with its own set of problems. Personally I'm amused and ok with famous people facing the consequences of voicing their opinions, and also them getting roasted by normal civilians in public thanks to twitter.
    - afiori 8y ago
      > which was the only way laypeople heard anything a famous person ever said (that or tabloid gossip "overheard"s). I get that twitter main usage is this, but you can accomplish that with literally any social media/personal website. What twitter really facilitates is seeing feeds from random people and famous people responses to other (famous or not) people.

matz1 8y ago

Then couldn't someone at Tesla council just say, yes we review and approved this tweet ?