Elon Musk found not liable in ‘pedo guy’ defamation trial

CNBC ^ | Lora Kolodny | Lora Kolodny

[Rebelbase]

A jury decided that Elon Musk had not defamed British caver Vernon Unsworth in a Los Angeles federal court on Friday.

“My faith in humanity is restored,” said Musk in court after the verdict was delivered. The jury deliberated for only an hour before delivering its verdict in the case, which went to trial earlier this week.

Elon Musk was found not liable for defamation in a Los Angeles federal court on Friday.

A British cave explorer, Vernon Unsworth, brought the suit against Musk in September 2018, after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had called him “sus” (suspicious) and a “pedo guy” on Twitter.

Musk and his defense team, led by attorney Alex Spiro, argued that “pedo guy” was simply heated rhetoric and not meant as a statement of fact.

Unsworth brought the suit against Musk in September 2018, after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had called him “sus” (suspicious) and a “pedo guy” on Twitter earlier that summer. Musk also characterized the spelunker as a “child rapist” in e-mails to Buzzfeed reporter Ryan Mac, and practically requested the lawsuit in August 2018 with a tweet that said, “Don’t you think it’s strange he hasn’t sued me?”

In his testimony during the defamation trial this week, Musk apologized to Unsworth and said he did not believe the cave explorer was a pedophile.

The clash between the two men began when Unsworth criticized Musk for involving himself, and his employees, in an effort to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from flooded caves in Thailand in July 2018.

[Rebelbase]

Tony Stark is invincible.

[dp0622]

Those are mighty extreme things to call a person if they’re not true!!

[dp0622]

Doesn’t matter if there’s no truth to it.

People don’t have to know anything about the situation except that Musk said and so maybe it’s possibly true.

And then a person can be ruined.

[lee martell]

He should at very least be required to pay that man an acceptable sum of money for causing all this trouble.
This trial just might make Elon think for second before he blurts out poisonous words about people who dare to disagree with him. None of this had to happen.

Now that rescuer will be described by some as ‘the man accused of being a pedophile by Elon Musk’. Elon should have been judged guilty. Maybe the jury was promised a big payday if they let him skate.

[Chode]

[LouieFisk]

“Those are mighty extreme things to call a person if they’re not true!!”
—
Yup, it would be a nasty accusation to just toss out in such a public forum. He should of just gone with calling the guy an SOB or something of that sort.

[dp0622]

If it was just out of malice then I never had respect or disrespect for the guy but now I have disrespect. Not that he cares :)

I’m pretty sure throwing something like that around here would be instant ban for life.

As it should be.

It’s maybe the worst thing you can say about a person

[Tea Party Terrorist]

The guy provoked Musk and couldn’t prove any injuries. Case closed. This is why the jury deliberated less than one hour.

[Inyo-Mono]

What movie is that from? That is in the Alabama Hills with Lone Pine Peak in the Eastern Sierra of California next to Mt. Whitney being blown up.

[LouieFisk]

“It’s maybe the worst thing you can say about a person”
—
Yeah, a person doesn’t wanna go there. If a person has some actual knowledge of crimes committed against children, they should be telling it to the authorities.

[Rockingham]

The law of defamation does not regard insult and abuse as actionable, only false statements of fact. Musk has had a close call and may have skated because he did not begin the name calling.

[BipolarBob]

iron man

[Notthereyet]

I would have not accepted Elon Musk’s explanation.

He repeated his statement several times. I don’t consider that ‘in the heat of the moment.’

Troubling, that he got away with it.

I have a dog in this hunt and I still believe Elon Musk was way, way out of line.

[Chode]

IronMan-2?

[Inyo-Mono]

Hmmm...I’ll have to check it out, that was filmed near to where I live. Thanks.

[TigersEye]

I guess that means we’re free to call Elon a dope-smoking pedo, eh?

[SpaceBar]

Musk got away with slander.

[Reverend Wright]

LA jury, Woke billionaire exemption.

[Paul R.]

They both deserve to be fined relative to their incomes.

That probably would not fly, by present legal standards, but it’d be justice.

I do agree with others here: It’s one thing to call someone an ass, for example, quite another to, in the climate of today, to very publicly call them a pedophile. This especially when the caller is a person of great influence and wealth, and the called is essentially an average citizen.

[Rockingham]

One intuitively sides with Musk's target as the victim of a outrageous insult, but defamation is a tough case when to make when the target starts the spat by offering the first insult. It should also be kept in mind that until the Sullivan case, well-off public figures often used defamation claims as a way to intimidate and silence critics. Blaming both parties and imposing financial penalties compounds the problem and misses the larger point that the First Amendment was intended to protect not just elevated, in bounds speech, but also the raucous allegations and tactics used against the British. What we know as the Boston Massacre, for example, was more in the way of a mob attack on British soldiers. The First Amendment was intended to protect name calling from a mob and American newspapers without endorsing the throwing of sticks and stones or the shooting of civilians in a demonstration against authority.