Elon Musk Challenges SEC, Tesla Tweet Approval Rule in Supreme Court Petition

Elon Musk has petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn a settlement agreement requiring a corporate lawyer to analyze and approve all of his Tesla-related tweets.

Elon Musk Petitioned the Supreme Court to Overturn Tesla Settlement Deal

In 2018, the Tesla CEO and his company reached a settlement agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission after he was charged with civil securities fraud by the SEC for tweets in which he claimed to have "funding secured" to take Tesla private for $420 per share and that "investor support" for such a deal was "confirmed."

In April 2019, the Independent reported that the settlement was adjusted to compel a "Twitter sitter" to approve each tweet Musk issued about Tesla. However, Musk's attorneys now request that the deal be annulled, claiming he was pressured into agreeing to "unconstitutional conditions."

The settlement "restricts Mr Musk's speech even when truthful and accurate," his lawyers wrote. "It extends to speech not covered by the securities laws and with no relation to the conduct underlying the SEC's civil action against Musk. And it chills Musk's speech through the never-ending threat of contempt, fines, or even imprisonment for otherwise protected speech if not pre-approved to the SEC's or a court's satisfaction."

Following Musk's comments in 2018, Tesla trading was stopped, and shares remained volatile for many weeks. Tesla shareholders have also sued the firm and Musk over his tweets and their influence on the stock price.

Musk and Tesla were ruled not responsible in a class action securities fraud lawsuit based on his tweets in a San Francisco federal court in February. The stockholders who brought the class action complaint filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit.

Musk's legal problems began before he bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X this year. Since then, he has proclaimed himself a "free speech absolutist," tweeting: "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated."

Elon Musk has also lifted a prohibition that had kept former President Donald Trump off Twitter when a pro-Trump mob invaded the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as Congress was about to confirm Joe Biden's electoral victory. He also restored the Twitter account of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who erroneously claimed the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a fabrication.

Elon Musk Reinstated Far-right Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones on X

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of X, reinstated far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the social media platform on Sunday, a year after pledging never to allow him back, ABS-CBN reported.

Jones, who claimed that a December 2012 school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 children and six instructors was a hoax, was banned from the site in 2018 for breaking its "abusive behavior policy."

He was also sued by the relatives of the Sandy Hook school massacre victims, and a judge in the case ordered him to pay more than a billion dollars in damages last year. Musk has previously stated that he would never allow the Infowars presenter to return to the social media network, which he purchased for $44 billion last year.

However, after a poll on X asking if Jones should be restored, to which two million users answered, Musk reversed his decision. "I vehemently disagree with what he said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not?" the co-founder of SpaceX stated on X.

Shannon Watts, the founder of the Moms Demand Action group, which advocates for stricter gun legislation, stated that "defamation is not free speech." Musk's move comes as Sandy Hook families mark the 11th anniversary of the December 14 tragedy, which Jones claims was staged for the government to crack down on gun rights.

For years, Jones' supporters tormented grieving families, accusing parents of dead children of being "crisis actors" whose children never existed. It also occurred a week after Musk replied to sponsors dropping out of X due to far-right remarks and hate speech, including an apparent support of an anti-Semitic comment by Musk himself.

When asked if he would respond to the advertising exodus, Musk told journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin that marketers can "go f*** yourself." Jones, who has a million followers on X, made his first appearance on the site by retweeting Andrew Tate, the notorious former kickboxer facing rape and human trafficking accusations in Romania, who praised Jones' "triumphant return."

According to US media, Jones' controversial show Infowars' account was still blocked as of Sunday.

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