Elon Musk’s tweets calling caver Vernon Unsworth, who was involved in the rescue of 13 people from a cave in Thailand, a “pedo guy” are not defamation, a jury found. As a result, Musk will not be liable for damages, according to the ruling.
The standard in the case is recklessness, which means Musk didn’t check to see if what he was saying was true before he tweeted it. The jury had to be convinced by a preponderance of the evidence that this was true, a lower standard than “actual malice.” But ultimately, they ruled that Unsworth’s case did not clear that standard.
Leaving the courtroom, Musk told reporters, “my faith in humanity is restored.”
Since Tuesday, the Los Angeles court has heard testimony from Unsworth, Musk, and others about the tweets. Musk has maintained that he viewed his tweets as insults, which are not defamation; on Tuesday, he testified that Twitter is “where people engage in verbal combat.” Unsworth said on Wednesday that he viewed the tweets as accusations, and he felt “dirtied” by them.
After a Thai soccer team and their coach were trapped in a cave system, Unsworth — who had the best knowledge of the cave, rescuer Rick Stanton testified on Wednesday — assisted in rescue efforts. Musk had also built a “minisub,” which could be used as a plan B for rescuing the boys — in case the plan to drug the boys and swim them out using divers, which was ultimately successful, didn’t work out. In an interview with CNN, Unsworth said he viewed Musk’s involvement as a “PR stunt” with “absolutely no chance of working,” and that Musk could “stick his sub where it hurts.”
Musk watched the clip “two or three times,” he testified, before sending out the tweets in question. Musk testified that he didn’t know about Unsworth’s involvement in the rescue, assuming he was just some “ex-pat” living in Thailand. In his first tweet, he called Unsworth “sus.” In his last, he wrote “sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.” The tweets were “obviously a very off-the-cuff response,” and Musk deleted them and apologized for them.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/6/2099 ... ave-rescueSmell my musk, you mother. Basically.
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