Does Elon Musk's Defamation Defense Verdict Spell 'Open Season' For Social Media Insults? Answer: Nope.

On December 6, a federal jury in the Central District of California found that Tesla CEO Elon Musk did not defame cave diver Vernon Unsworth by referring to him in a tweet as "pedo guy." Unsworth v. Musk, No. 2:18-cv-08048 (C.D. Cal. Dec. 6, 2019). Unsworth, who helped rescue a boys' soccer team from a flooded cave in Thailand in July 2018, alleged that a series of tweets Musk published to his nearly 30 million Twitter followers were defamatory, falsely accused Mr. Unsworth of being a pedophile and child rapist, and caused Unsworth worldwide damage to his reputation and emotional distress. The jury deliberated for less than one hour before finding in favor of Musk.

During a CNN interview following the 2018 rescue, Unsworth had criticized Musk's showing up to the cave site with a mini-submarine as a "PR stunt," and said that the mini-submarine "had absolutely no chance of working" to save the boys. Unsworth's complaint alleged that Musk retaliated against this criticism with a series of defamatory tweets and a series of defamatory emails sent to a Buzzfeed News reporter.

To prove defamation in the form of libel, a plaintiff must show the existence of a false statement, and that the statement was published to a third party, was made with the requisite degree of fault, and caused harm. Modern defamation cases have increasingly seen defendants arguing that words and accusations that may have formerly been considered defamatory are now understood as mere opinions or hyperbole rather than factual assertions. See Stephanie Clifford v. Donald J. Trump, No. 2:18-cv-02217 (C.D. Cal...