Elon Musk Gets Away with “Pedo Guy” Comment: CEO Found Not Liable in Defamation Case

[Tsing]

If a billionaire CEO talks smack about you on social media, you'll probably just have to live with it. Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has emerged victorious over British cave explorer Vernon Unsworth's defamation suit, which was brought against him when he called Unsworth a "pedo guy" on Twitter. Musk's lawyers argued that the statement was merely "heated rhetoric" and "not meant as a statement of fact," and the jury agreed after just a few hours of deliberation.

After the rescue, Unsworth was asked during a television interview on CNN about the mini-sub and Musk. He said Musk could “stick his submarine where it hurts,” and viewed the escape pod as “just a PR stunt.” Lashing back, Musk called the caver a “pedo guy” in his now infamous public tweets. The verdict could set a precedent where free speech online, libel and slander are concerned.

 

[JosiahBradley]

I have to agree that insults, while mean, are in line with the 1st amendment. He did not incite violence or cause harm to the public and did not use the insult in a manner, or medium, that is generally regarded as factual or even informative like a newspaper or news broadcast. This is the world of social media we live in and one of the key differences between digital and print mediums.

 

[ThreeDee]

if anybody talks smack about you on the internet .. you'll probably just have to live with it .. Twitter .. Steam forums .. here .. "It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under" ..

 

[Uvilla]

It was the right decision based on the judge guidelines.
No payday for that guy... He really shouldn't have insulted another person trying to help with the rescue.. telling Elon to shove the submarine up his *** was pretty nasty... Elon response... I understand his anger though... Would have been better for Elon to take the high road while emphasizing no such thing as a stunt and so on of course and how it's ot nice to insult people helping. The 'hero' really seemed like and ******* when he said that stuff about the sub and whatever... Did he apologized for that at any point?

 

[SeymourGore]

I like Musk, seems like the kind of inventor we need to advance ourselves, however I thought for sure he'd get something ruled against him.

Not necessary for the initial comment (which as others have pointed out, was an insult *after* the guy told him where to put the submarine), but it was the followup actions that I thought would land Musk in hot water. IE: confirming with media outlets that he thought the guy was a pedophile, hiring the investigator to dig up dirt, etc.