A US jury threw out on Friday the $190 million defamation lawsuit filed against Elon Musk over the 'pedo guy' comment made by the Tesla CEO on Twitter. The Los Angeles federal court jury agreed that Musk's remark was an 'off-hand insult' that no one should take seriously. "In arguments you insult people ... There is no bomb. No bomb went off," Musk's lawyer argued in court.
After the verdict was announced, Musk said: "My faith in humanity is restored." The case had garnered global attention as it was probably the first major defamation suit filed by a private individual to go to trial over tweets, Reuters reported. The plaintiff, Vernon Unsworth, took Musk to court after the business icon called him a 'pedo guy' on Twitter.
Unsworth's attorney L Lin Wood said Musk was "billionaire bully" and that he had dropped a nuclear bomb on the British cave explorer.
Musk's attack followed bitter arguments the two had over the rescue of a boys' football in a Thailand cave in July 2008. Unsworth shot to fame after he successfully coordinated the rescue of the boys from the flooded Tham Luang Nang Non cave after several days of heightened tension. In a CNN interview three days after the rescue, the 64-year-old brushed aside Musk's offer of a mini submarine from his SpaceX rocket company for the rescue as a PR stunt. He added that Musk could "stick his submarine where it hurts."
Musk took to Twitter to take the fight on, saying that Unsworth was a 'pedo guy'. Unsworth then sued Musk for US$190 million in damages, arguing that the pedophile slur would make it impossible for him to get employment in the future. Unsworth's attorney L Lin Wood said Musk was "billionaire bully" and that he had dropped a nuclear bomb on Unsworth.
Unsworth had to prove that Musk had an intent to defame to win the defamation case. He also had to prove that the tweets were false and that people reasonably understood Musk's tweets to mean that he was a paedophile. Proving that Elon Musk did not use reasonable care to determine if they accusation was true was also required.
Elon Musk has as many as 29.8 million followers on Twitter. The pedophile accusation on Unsworth was not backed up with any evidence. However, Musk's lawyers argued in court that tweets were opinion, not statements of fact. They also surmised that no one who thought Unsworth was a paedophile because of Musk's tweet.
