The tycoon admitted that the posts on the platform he owned X, formerly Twitter, may have damaged the company financially.
Elon Musk's recent erratic posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, continue to haunt him.
The stage for the latest events was the courtduring a defamation case brought by a 22-year-old recent graduate over tweets in which the tycoon suggested, without evidence, that the young university graduate was a undercover federal agent involved in a brawl between far-right groups.
In a laborious deposition on the matter dated March 27, made public by order of a judge over the objections of the CEO's lawyer, Musk missed statements about the extent to which his posts sabotagedover time, both himself and the social media platform he owns.
Better Call Musk
Twenty-two-year-old Ben Brody is suing Musk for defamation last fall.
The accusation was that the Tesla CEO, through posts from his X profile, had fueled a conspiracy theory that falsely identified Brody as part of a fight between two groups of neo-Nazis in Oregon.
The young man, who was in California and only vaguely resembled one of the participants in the brawl, found himself at the center of attention, quickly going from the frying pan to the grill: some users who saw the images and believed the words of the tweets hypothesized that the brawl was an operation of false flagsa staged accident, and that Brody was an undercover government agent.
Questioned by Mark Bankston, the young man's lawyer, about the Twitter acquisition and how it affected him the way he used itMusk responded by saying that “the way he uses it is unchanged, both before and after the acquisition.”
Later, he acknowledged that maintaining that attitude probably did X more harm than good.
Musk said: “I may have ended up hurting the company more financially than helping it, but I certainly don't let my posts be guided by what is financially beneficial but by what I believe is interesting or important or entertaining to the audience.”
I never pay
Musk interacted with users promoting the X conspiracy theory, agreeing with their conclusions that the brawl was likely a staged ploy.
During the trial, on several occasions the tycoon expressed doubts about the reasons why Brody was taking him to court and about the fundamental details of the case.
At one point, he charged that his opponents were using the lawsuit as a pretext simply to “try to get a lot of money.”
Musk also expressed that he did not believe Brody was in such a state of danger that he “would be forced to evacuate his home” and therefore would not suffer “significant harm” as a result of the false allegations he helped spread.
“People get attacked all the time in the media, online, on social media, but it's rare that it actually has a significant negative impact on their life,” Musk said.
Musk also confessed to being the owner of a fake account called @ermnmusk, where he played his own infant son. Motherboard and several other media outlets discovered this mysterious account last year.
Among the tycoon's recent admissions, there is also that relating to the use of ketamine, which he says is in the interests of investors. Finally, Attorney Bankston, addressing the heart of the matter, obtained an admission from Musk that he had done nothing to independently verify the identity of the person misidentified as Brody before posting the allegedly defamatory tweet.
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