Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, is making waves in the US Supreme Court, aiming to ditch the restrictions imposed on his social media posts regarding the electric car giant in 2018. Musk's legal team argues that these controls violate his constitutional right to free speech. Despite two previous court losses, the Supreme Court's decision on Musk's petition remains uncertain. The deadline for filing an appeal expired last week.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) imposed these restrictions following Musk's Twitter posts in August 2018, which suggested he was considering delisting Tesla from the stock exchange, adding "financing secured." However, this statement turned out to be misleading, as no investment commitments were in place.
Musk's purchase of Twitter in October 2022 and his subsequent renaming of the platform to X have added new dimensions to the ongoing saga. Since then, any messages from Musk on X that could influence Tesla's stock price should now be pre-approved by the company—a regulation that Musk is now challenging.
Background
Musk's tweets in 2018 sparked a frenzy and sent Tesla's stock price plummeting. The SEC accused Musk of misleading investors and not only supervised his social media posts but also forced him to step down as Tesla's chairman and fined him and the company $20 million each.
However, the recent developments in this situation remain unclear. Although the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from X Corp. related to social media post oversight, the specifics of Tesla-related information or the SEC's oversight in this context are not explicitly detailed in recent updates. To gain the most accurate and up-to-date information, one should consult recent legal updates or news articles focusing on this particular issue.
