In a lawsuit filed against the billionaire, Outspoken This may have led to damaging results.”
Musk, who bought the site formerly known as Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, was sued last year for defamation by a 22-year-old Jewish man from California. The man claims he was falsely accused by the mogul of participating in the neo campaign. -Nazi “false flag” demonstration.
In a Zoom deposition on March 27, Musk said, “I post based on what I believe is interesting, important, or entertaining to the public, not what is economically beneficial.” court documents show.
According to court documents, Musk also acknowledged that “there’s a risk that what I say is wrong,” but that “that has to be balanced against having a chilling effect on free speech in general, and that’s something that we need to do in our country.” It would undermine the entire foundations of democracy in the country.”was Huffington Post first reported.
The defamation suit was filed in response to comments made by user X about a brawl between neo-Nazi group Rose City Nationalists and far-right Proud Boys in Oregon during a Pride Night event on June 24 last year. It was caused by Ben Brody.
Musk, who has 180 million followers on repeated the conspiracy theory. .
He also amplified posts identifying Brody as a federal agent who posed as a neo-Nazi in a “false flag” operation, even though Brody was not in Oregon at the time of the riot.
“One appears to be a college student (who wants to join the government) and the other appears to be possibly an Antifa member, but it’s still probably a false flag situation,” Musk wrote to X. The post remains online, but the response to the comment to which Musk was addressed has been deleted.
As a result of Musk’s post, some X users allegedly began bombarding Brody with threats.
Brody said Musk’s comments forced him and his family to flee their home. He is seeking more than $1 million in damages.
Musk said during his deposition that he had a “limited understanding” of the lawsuit filed against him.
“I commit a lot of self-harm,” he said.
Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, asked that the transcript of the deposition be kept confidential. However, his request was denied by a judge.
The Post has reached out to Mr. X for comment.
The next court hearing is scheduled for April 22nd.
The social media site has seen an exodus of advertisers since Musk took the helm over concerns that its free speech mission is allowing hateful content to flourish on the platform.
The company distributed stock grants to employees last fall that were valued at $19 billion. Financial services giant Fidelity, which helped Musk buy Twitter and take it private, said X is now worth 71% less than when Musk bought it.
In 2019, before Musk bought the site, he won a defamation lawsuit brought by a British diver who labeled him a “pedo guy.”
The pair clashed over Musk’s proposal to build an underwater vehicle to help rescue Thai schoolboys trapped in a flooded cave.
