Musk Accused of Defamation for Involvement in Spreading Conspiracy Theories: "Attacking Innocent Individuals"
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has been sued for defamation over a post on the social networking service X (formerly Twitter).
According to AP and Bloomberg on the 3rd (local time), 22-year-old Benjamin Brody from California filed a lawsuit against Musk the day before, demanding at least $1 million (about 1.3 billion KRW) in damages for defamation.
Brody claimed that he was harassed by people after Musk spread false claims related to far-right protesters on social media.
The issue Brody raised concerns a post Musk made on X on June 27. Musk retweeted another user's post raising suspicions about Brody and commented, "He looks like a college student (who wants to enter a government agency). This could be a 'false flag' situation." A 'false flag' refers to an act designed to make hostile or harmful behavior appear to have been carried out by someone else.
The video Musk retweeted showed what appeared to be members of the far-right group 'Proud Boys' protesting and confronting others near a Pride (LGBTQ+) festival held in Portland, Oregon, on June 24.
Some X users identified Brody as one of the participants in this protest. They also pointed to his social media profile stating that he majored in political science at university and wanted to work for a government agency, arguing that the protest was fabricated by authorities to worsen perceptions of right-wing groups.
Brody stated that he never participated in the protest and that after Musk retweeted the post mentioning him on social media, he was harassed by some netizens.
Brody criticized, "Due to Musk's reckless attitude, his pattern of unpunished false statements, and his interest in the most unreliable and extreme elements on social media platforms, innocent individuals are being attacked and their worlds are being turned upside down."
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Previously, in 2018, Musk was also sued for defamation after he baselessly labeled a British cave explorer who criticized him on Twitter as a "pedophile."
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