Elon Musk says 'pedo guy' tweet did not suggest cave diver was a pedophile | Hacker News Reader

Elon Musk says 'pedo guy' tweet did not suggest cave diver was a pedophile

reuters.com

13 pointsbasseq8 comments

Does Musk not have lawyers? How did they let him release a statement calling the person suing him for defamation a "creepy old man?" That's further defamation!

This statement hasn't at all helped the situation. Musk should settle ASAP. The original tweet(s) in context are completely untenable and this defense has only further worsened the situation for Musk.

Musk falsely calling him a "child rapist" to Buzzfeed News based on an erroneous private investigator report only worsens the circumstance, as do Musk's tweets effectively claiming it was true unless a lawsuit for defamation was conducted.

If I was on a jury, and there's no proof these claims are factually true, Musk is losing every time.

His lawyers AFAIK were fighting the defamation suit claiming it's protected speech, free speech - it's his opinion, and that no one would genuinely believe that Elon has some special knowledge that any reasonable person would believe was a statement of truth; I certainly didn't think Elon had any credibility to that statement, it just made him look like he was having a temper tantrum.

Not sure why he's no longer sticking to that narrative or if his lawyers have changed their narrative too?

"Just an opinion" doesn't work so great in the context of the later Buzzfeed emails maybe? (Genuine question, not familiar enough with relevant US law)

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/elon-musk-thai-...

If he didn't provide any so-called evidence then a journalist/media platform certainly shouldn't take it as fact.

They clearly didn't. If he actually had provided evidence, it wouldn't be defamation. But it seems difficult to argue "just an opinion nobody would take as fact" when at the same time you claimed to know detailed facts about the case. They can't really argue "Everyone knows Elon Musk can't be believed when he makes claims about facts".

It of course also pokes massive holes in the current strategy, so who knows what their plan is.

Someone needs to tell his lawyers the 1st amendment protects you from the government, not from getting sued for defamation.

What is the governement if not the court? This statement confuses me

The first amendment does protect you from being sued (legal judgements are government action), but the scope of that protection in the case of defamation may not be as broad as Musk wants it to be.

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