“He had no conception of what the cave passage was like. The submarine, I believe, was about 5ft 6in long, rigid, so it wouldn’t have gone around corners or round any obstacles.”Also, he described the Musk’s effort to rescue as a “PR stunt.” The submarine was 5-6 feet long, and rigid, which means it could not have navigated around obstacles or tight turns inside the cave. The statement seemed to infuriate Musk, who took on Twitter to respond and called Unsworth “pedo guy.” He also said, “bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.” Soon after this tweet, the British Diver Unsworth declared legal action against Tesla’s CEO saying:
“I believe he’s called me a pedophile. I think people realize what sort of guy [Musk] is.”When asked if he was willing to take action against Musk, Unsworth replied: “Yes, it’s not finished.” Soon after Unsworth filed his lawsuit Musk took Twitter to apologize for what he said. The apology came the very next day after Tesla’s share prices dropped. The apology was visible to only a few followers of Musk’s official Twitter account. The rest were not able to see it. Musk clarified that his statements were due to Unsworth’s statement about the small submarine, saying that it has no chance of working and Musk should stick his submarine where it hurts. Musk admitted that:
“his actions against me do not justify my actions against him and for that, I apologize to Mr. Unsworth and to the companies that I represent as a leader. The fault is mine and mine alone.”
But things didn’t sit well with a lot of Twitter followers. Some even accused Musk racism. Musk has now filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming:Nonetheless, his actions against me do not justify my actions against him, and for that I apologize to Mr. Unsworth and to the companies I represent as leader. The fault is mine and mine alone.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2018
“ Statements on un-moderated internet forums are presumptively opinion.”We don’t know yet if the motion to dismiss will be successful. Of course, the statement Musk made about Unsworth on Twitter is not at all credible, but whether it is protected by free speech or was damaging in some legal way remains to be seen. You can view the entire movement that Musk issued here.
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