6 ms·

Musk, SEC Settle Legal Fight over His Tweets About Tesla

40 points by AndrewBissell 8y ago

sschueller 8y ago
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 8y ago
  Most 3rd party software used for social media management has this feature.
  - pbreit 8y ago
    Which is why they have pathetic media presences.
- kylecordes 8y ago
  Probably a good idea for anyone in an influential position.
firasd 8y ago
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 8y ago
  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.
  - cptskippy 8y ago
    With success comes influence and it becomes easier to manipulate people and profit from it.
  - braythwayt 8y ago
    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 8y ago
      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 8y ago
        Thank you!
    - maehwasu 8y ago
      > 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. The regulatory bodies don't exactly come out looking awesome in the above sentence.
      - braythwayt 8y ago
        Regulatory bodies are the worst thing we’ve ever tried, except unregulated capitalism.
- simple_phrases 8y ago
  Ego is a hell of a drug.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- colechristensen 8y ago
  You can decide to let wealth be a prison or not. But also, above a certain level you just get sued all the damn time and stop caring so much.
- pbreit 8y ago
  Also insanely effective and insanely cheap.
- NicoJuicy 8y ago
  Please don't call T. A success. In hard facts, the tower was it and all the rest failed. Yes, he earns money with the T. Name ( ongoing - i think revenue will slide a lot in 2 years) and yes, the presidency is not finished yet ( = also ongoing and I expect lawsuits after it). Also, the Apprentice was self produced ( fake it till you make it) and I wouldn't know what other success he could have had. Burning bridges for the US and self-enrichment ( cfr. ZTE and Ivanka T. In China) doesn't seem very respectful to me. Ps. Former Foursquare had analytics that the T. Named buildings had a lot less visitors.
  - kevmo 8y ago
    Don't forget that he's also a WWE Hall of Famer. https://www.wwe.com/superstars/donald-trump https://www.wwe.com/superstars/donald-trump
    - NicoJuicy 8y ago
      Fake it till you make it. No money was involved for sure ;) - https://youtu.be/jkghtyxZ6rc https://youtu.be/jkghtyxZ6rc
  - freewilly1040 8y ago
    I mean I don’t like the guy but he’s certainly for the most part succeeded in what he’s set out to do with his life
    - exelius 8y ago
      I’m pretty sure his life goal reads “you’re the best dolan!” He makes the rest up as he goes.
    - NicoJuicy 8y ago
      What's had he succeeded? Trump tower with Daddy's money. Yes. But I'm not really sure what else. Renting out his name is actually based on the Trump Tower. Replicating the same success with casinos and hotels was a stock market disaster. Ps. Yes, he said everything went great to stock market analysts. But he still went broke 2 times shortly after.
Causality1 8y ago
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.
- simple_phrases 8y ago
  Tesla's board is stuffed with Musk acolytes, so this is unlikely to happen.
  - JumpCrisscross 8y ago
    > Tesla's board is stuffed with Musk acolytes Tesla's Board is also elected by its shareholders, many of whom are unaffiliated with Elon Musk.
    - WheelsAtLarge 8y ago
      Not really, Musk owns a controlling share of Tesla. If he decides he doesn't want a board member, they are out. No board member is going to go against him.
      - jsight 8y ago
        That isn't the case actually. Musk owns far less than 50%... maybe ~20%?
        WheelsAtLarge 8y ago
        Nope, he controls. See the following article: https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/how-elon-musk-controls-tesla-with-only-a-minority-stake-14564491 https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/how-elon-musk-con...
- todd3834 8y ago
  Is this something that is happening on a regular basis?
rhizome 8y ago
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-face-cave-rescuer-lawsuit-over-pedo-guy-tweet https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-26/musk-must...
- dmix 8y ago
  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 8y ago
    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.
    - toomuchtodo 8y ago
      He acts like he’s above the law, which you are in a way when you’re a billionaire. Money is power. You don’t even have to be a billionaire (see: POTUS and pre presidency crimes). The system is of course tilted towards those with means, it’s ridiculously silly to propose otherwise. Musk is going to get off with slap on the wrist (relatively), with damages due of single digit millions at most. De minimis.
      - kylecordes 8y ago
        I think he would have more power and impact, regardless of any spare billions, if he would choose words carefully. Increase the signal-to-noise ratio of his twitter feed. Billionaire means you can get away with various things. Billionaire plus diligent attention doing a great job in public communications, that’s a winner.
dayaz36 8y ago
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

40 points by AndrewBissell 8y ago

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 8y ago
Most 3rd party software used for social media management has this feature.
- pbreit 8y ago
  Which is why they have pathetic media presences.
kylecordes 8y ago
Probably a good idea for anyone in an influential position.

firasd 8y ago

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 8y ago
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.
- cptskippy 8y ago
  With success comes influence and it becomes easier to manipulate people and profit from it.
- braythwayt 8y ago
  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 8y ago
    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 8y ago
      Thank you!
  - maehwasu 8y ago
    > 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. The regulatory bodies don't exactly come out looking awesome in the above sentence.
    - braythwayt 8y ago
      Regulatory bodies are the worst thing we’ve ever tried, except unregulated capitalism.
simple_phrases 8y ago
Ego is a hell of a drug.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
colechristensen 8y ago
You can decide to let wealth be a prison or not. But also, above a certain level you just get sued all the damn time and stop caring so much.
pbreit 8y ago
Also insanely effective and insanely cheap.
NicoJuicy 8y ago
Please don't call T. A success. In hard facts, the tower was it and all the rest failed. Yes, he earns money with the T. Name ( ongoing - i think revenue will slide a lot in 2 years) and yes, the presidency is not finished yet ( = also ongoing and I expect lawsuits after it). Also, the Apprentice was self produced ( fake it till you make it) and I wouldn't know what other success he could have had. Burning bridges for the US and self-enrichment ( cfr. ZTE and Ivanka T. In China) doesn't seem very respectful to me. Ps. Former Foursquare had analytics that the T. Named buildings had a lot less visitors.
- kevmo 8y ago
  Don't forget that he's also a WWE Hall of Famer. https://www.wwe.com/superstars/donald-trump https://www.wwe.com/superstars/donald-trump
  - NicoJuicy 8y ago
    Fake it till you make it. No money was involved for sure ;) - https://youtu.be/jkghtyxZ6rc https://youtu.be/jkghtyxZ6rc
- freewilly1040 8y ago
  I mean I don’t like the guy but he’s certainly for the most part succeeded in what he’s set out to do with his life
  - exelius 8y ago
    I’m pretty sure his life goal reads “you’re the best dolan!” He makes the rest up as he goes.
  - NicoJuicy 8y ago
    What's had he succeeded? Trump tower with Daddy's money. Yes. But I'm not really sure what else. Renting out his name is actually based on the Trump Tower. Replicating the same success with casinos and hotels was a stock market disaster. Ps. Yes, he said everything went great to stock market analysts. But he still went broke 2 times shortly after.

Causality1 8y ago

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.

simple_phrases 8y ago
Tesla's board is stuffed with Musk acolytes, so this is unlikely to happen.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > Tesla's board is stuffed with Musk acolytes Tesla's Board is also elected by its shareholders, many of whom are unaffiliated with Elon Musk.
  - WheelsAtLarge 8y ago
    Not really, Musk owns a controlling share of Tesla. If he decides he doesn't want a board member, they are out. No board member is going to go against him.
    - jsight 8y ago
      That isn't the case actually. Musk owns far less than 50%... maybe ~20%?
      - WheelsAtLarge 8y ago
        Nope, he controls. See the following article: https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/how-elon-musk-controls-tesla-with-only-a-minority-stake-14564491 https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/how-elon-musk-con...
todd3834 8y ago
Is this something that is happening on a regular basis?

rhizome 8y ago

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

dmix 8y ago
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 8y ago
  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.
  - toomuchtodo 8y ago
    He acts like he’s above the law, which you are in a way when you’re a billionaire. Money is power. You don’t even have to be a billionaire (see: POTUS and pre presidency crimes). The system is of course tilted towards those with means, it’s ridiculously silly to propose otherwise. Musk is going to get off with slap on the wrist (relatively), with damages due of single digit millions at most. De minimis.
    - kylecordes 8y ago
      I think he would have more power and impact, regardless of any spare billions, if he would choose words carefully. Increase the signal-to-noise ratio of his twitter feed. Billionaire means you can get away with various things. Billionaire plus diligent attention doing a great job in public communications, that’s a winner.

dayaz36 8y ago

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