Anyone who says he wants to make Twitter a space for “free speech” was overturned Wednesday by a U.S. federal judge, who refused to revoke an agreement in which Elon Musk agreed to get preliminary approved tweet about Tesla.
The co-founder and boss of electric vehicle maker Tesla, which has just reached an agreement to buy Twitter, is disputing the agreement he signed in the fall of 2018 with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the regulator of the American stock exchange, who accused him of fraud after tweets on his company’s activity were published a few weeks before.
His motion, filed in March, asked a U.S. court to release him from having to submit his tweets about Tesla’s activity to the company’s attorneys before it could be published.
Mr. argued. Musk that the agreement violates his right to freedom of expression and argued that the TUYO looking for it silence and in harass Tesla. He also said he was forced to accept the out-of-court settlement because the litigation would put too much financial pressure on his company.
In a 20-page decision, Judge Lewis Limanof the U.S. Court for the Southern District of New York, however, has graduated Elon Musk cannot seek to revoke an agreement which he has deliberately and voluntarily entered into merely by insisting that he was under the impression at the time he must agree, but prefers in fact to refuse, now that the ghost of a misunderstanding is only a distant memory and his company has become, in his eyes, invincible.
” He can no longer complain that this provision violates his First Amendment rights. The argument of[‘Elon] The musk TUYO used permission -based judgment to harass him and launch investigations into his speech is also baseless and, in this case, particularly paradoxical. “
The principle of freedom of expression does not allow him to make comments that are or could be considered fraudulent or contrary to stock market lawshe will decide.
Judge Lewis even dismissed his application to set aside orders for the manufacture of documents where the TUYO was investigating whether he approved his posts or instead violated the terms of their deal when he asked his followers in November if he should give up 10% of his Tesla stock and promised to abide by their judgment.
His tweets then moved the share price.
Most have been made recently of unrealized profits as a form of tax evasion, so I propose to sell 10% of my Tesla stock.
Do you support it?
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) Nov. 6, 2021
According to wall street journalthe American regulator has also opened an investigation to determine if Tesla’s boss and his brother Kimbal Musk, who a day before these tweets were selling parts of the company of which he was a member of the board of directors , is dedicated to insider trading.
A tweet with serious consequences
In August 2018, the multi-billionaire caused astonishment in a tweet in which he claimed without providing proof that there financing assured to remove Tesla from the stock market at $ 420 per share.
His statement then pushed up the value of the title and lost big money to investors who bet on the group’s collapse.
Ang TUYO he was then sued for fraud. The financial market regulator and supervisor have argued Elon Musk’s false and misleading statements and omissions have created great confusion and disruption in the market causing harm to investors..
Under the agreement he signed, Elon Musk relinquished the chairmanship of Tesla’s board of directors and agreed to pay a fine of 20 million U.S. dollars, to which added the equivalent amount paid by the company, as well the submission of his tweets for approval by Tesla’s lawyers.
Since challenging the deal, Elon Musk, now the richest man in the world, has agreed with the Twitter board to buy the social network for US $ 54.20 per share and create a private, unlisted company.
The company’s board first tried to oppose his offensive, launched weeks after a transaction that made him a major shareholder of Twitter.
After repurchasing the company’s 73.5 million common share, or 9.2% of the company’s market value, he almost joined its board of directors, before going back and choosing a different strategy.
Apostle of “freedom of expression”
If Twitter’s announced change of hands has particularly pleased its co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey as well as some American right-wing commentators, it worries some observers and users.
Twitter will let a man acting like a child essentially take its platformsaid Leslie Miley, a former Twitter executive, among others.
Some fear the vision of Elon Musk, who describes himself as a free speech absolutistprovides freedom of misinformation, hate speech and intimidation.
Even since announcing the transaction, Mr. Musk, with nearly 87 million subscribers, is stepping up social network attacks.
On Wednesday, for example, he denounced her left bias and insisted on that Truth Socialthe social network of former President Donald Trump, has only existed since Twitter has censored free speech.
Accustomed to controversy, the libertarian businessman has posted several controversial jokes and shocking statements on Twitter in recent years.
In 2018, for example, he called a British speleologist who was a pedophile who helped rescue Thai children trapped in a cave. He won the lawsuit for defamation launched against him.
Despite his defense of freedom of expression, Elon Musk is known to block and insult Internet users on Twitter who challenge him or disagree with him.
Source: Radio-Canada
