Tesla CEO Elon Musk really, really wants to keep tweeting without any other adults looking over his shoulder, despite a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission last year ordering him not to send out tweets that could affect Tesla’s stock without getting pre-approval from company officials.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk really, really wants to keep tweeting without any other adults looking over his shoulder, despite a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission last year ordering him not to send out tweets that could affect Tesla’s stock without getting pre-approval from company officials.
At issue is a Feb. 19 tweet in which Musk tweeted, and then corrected, inaccurate numbers on Tesla vehicle production rates without having it reviewed beforehand. The SEC recently filed to hold Musk in contempt for the post, which it said violated an settlement imposed in 2018 after he falsely claimed he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at a share price of “420.” The agreement required Musk to resign as chair of Tesla’s board, pay tens of millions in fines, and pre-clear potentially “material” posts about the company with staff. According to the SEC, Musk has never done that last thing.
The SEC recently issued a blistering court filing claiming that Musk was continuing to tweet inaccurate information about the company in defiance of the settlement, calling his reading of the agreement a “tortured analysis” that “borders on the ridiculous.” Musk’s legal team responded on Friday, according to the Verge, and in legal filings laid out his case.
Lawyers for Musk, who has attempted to portray the SEC as an out-of-control agency out to wreck him, wrote in the documents that the specific wording of the settlement allows him to freely determine whether or not a tweet is material before sending it out.
