Musk being sued for defaming random nobody as fed provacteur and/or nazi

[TurkeysGhost]

Elon Musk Sued for Falsely Claiming Random Man Was a Fed Posing as Neo-Nazi
The increasingly far-right billionaire can't seem to stop amplifying dangerous misinformation on his own social media platform

The short of it is that at some pride event, both the Proud boys and an explicitly neo-fascist group called the Rose City Nationalists showed up to intimidate the community. These nearly indistinguishable far-right groups ended up getting into a fist fight, and a couple of the masked RSN members got their masks ripped off.

The internet brain trust took images of these unmasked Nazis and decided that some random Jewish guy was one of them, claiming he was a fed agent provocateur doing a false flag, because none of these internet right wingers are willing to admit that neo-fascism is rampant among their ranks.

Musk flirted with this conspiracy theory before finally taking the plunge, defaming this uninvolved person using his massive social media presence.

According to Texas firm Farrar & Ball attorney Mark Bankston, Brody’s legal counsel, these two comments did not rise to the level of defamation. (Bankston previously represented two Sandy Hook parents in a suit against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, winning them $45 million in damages over his claims that the school shooting never happened.) Instead, in his complaint on Brody’s behalf in and a thread on X explaining the case, Bankston wrote that Musk crossed a line when, on June 27, he replied to ZeroHedge, a financial blog known to dabble in right-wing conspiracism. “Patriot Front ‘White Supremacist’ Unmasked As Suspected Fed,” read the title on the link shared by ZeroHedge, which led to a blog post that included a tweet from someone repeating the false accusation against Brody.

“Looks like one is a college student (who wants to join the govt) and another is maybe an Antifa member,” Musk replied, clearly referring to Brody, “but nonetheless a probable false flag situation.” He also tagged Community Notes, X’s crowdsourced system, for fact-checking content on the platform. While ZeroHedge’s tweet has since been deleted, Musk’s reply remains visible.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/elon-musk-sued-falsely-claiming-man-fed-posing-neo-nazi-1234836778/

You may recall Bankston as one of the leading attorneys involved in the monumental defamation case against Alex Jones.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Man, I would love to see the video of Musk getting deposed by Bankston.

 

[gabeygoat]

Man, I would love to see the video of Musk getting deposed by Bankston.

for real

 

[angrysoba]

While I love Bankston for his performance in the Alex Jones trial, it’s best to remember that, notwithstanding his Twitter tomfoolery which began with I’ll-advised legal problems, Musk is likely to have better lawyers than the idiots who represented Jones and also that while Musk’s brain on Culture Wars has rotted half away, it is still not quite at Jones levels of imbecility.

Still, amazing that Musk is such an idiot as to get himself into this type of trouble.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

No matter the lawyers, Musk would come across as extremely unpleasant in any deposition, making it extremely likely that he would settle for quite a bit instead of having it come out.

"Now, Mr. Musk, please tell me about this Jewish Conspiracy that you thought my client have been a part of."

 

[Puppycow]

Remember last time that guy he called "pedo guy" sued him for defamation. He didn't win.

I hate Musk as much as the next guy, but this case seems like a stretch given that what Musk said was somewhat vague, with caveats like "looks like" and "maybe". I don't like the insinuation but there are several elements that must be met to prove defamation including that the plaintiff suffered some kind of actual reputational damage.

 

[Shrinker]

Pedo Guy Guy has made far more coherent false accusations before. This one is just conspiracy salad for morons. 'FBI agent posing as Antifa provocateur posing as Neo-Nazi' seems like something you'd put on a teeshirt.

 

[angrysoba]

Remember last time that guy he called "pedo guy" sued him for defamation. He didn't win.

I hate Musk as much as the next guy, but this case seems like a stretch given that what Musk said was somewhat vague, with caveats like "looks like" and "maybe". I don't like the insinuation but there are several elements that must be met to prove defamation including that the plaintiff suffered some kind of actual reputational damage.

Well, in terms of suffering some kind of actual reputational damage, that might be very easy….

Brody and his family were doxxed as a result of the conspiracy theory Musk promoted on his site, Bankston tweeted on Monday, and had to flee their home during “weeks of terror.” Brody, he wrote, has a reputation now “catastrophically damaged” by the wealthiest man on the planet and has suffered mental anguish “at the crucial moment when he exits college and enters his career path.”

This is the same kind of damage that the Sandy Hook parents received, where they were hounded by a bunch of insane conspiracy theorists.

When Alex Jones was on the stand, then like an idiot he would brag about how many people listen to his radio show and believe him as a more credible source than the mainstream media. He even bragged about how much revenue he got as a result which essentially showed that he could hardly claim that nobody paid attention to his statements or that he had no money to pay anyone.

The reputational damage is admitted by someone who declares themselves the head of an influential media source that people accept as true.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

While I love Bankston for his performance in the Alex Jones trial, it’s best to remember that, notwithstanding his Twitter tomfoolery which began with I’ll-advised legal problems, Musk is likely to have better lawyers than the idiots who represented Jones and also that while Musk’s brain on Culture Wars has rotted half away, it is still not quite at Jones levels of imbecility.

Still, amazing that Musk is such an idiot as to get himself into this type of trouble.

Yeah, it's worth remembering that it's entirely possible, if not likely, that Alex Jones could have won that lawsuit on the merits had he not stonewalled the entire thing and lost by default. The protections of 1A in this country are quite broad. Whether or not what Jones said was actually defamation was never determined because Jones refused to comply with court and lost by default.

That said, we're talking about Musk here, so it's entirely possible that a similar pattern may emerge of a noncompliant defendant.

Remember last time that guy he called "pedo guy" sued him for defamation. He didn't win.

I hate Musk as much as the next guy, but this case seems like a stretch given that what Musk said was somewhat vague, with caveats like "looks like" and "maybe". I don't like the insinuation but there are several elements that must be met to prove defamation including that the plaintiff suffered some kind of actual reputational damage.

You have to wonder if that guy would have won if he hadn't had Lin Wood as his lawyer.

This was right before it became clear to the public that Wood had lost his god damned mind and wasn't the caliber of lawyer he used to be.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Remember last time that guy he called "pedo guy" sued him for defamation. He didn't win.

I hate Musk as much as the next guy, but this case seems like a stretch given that what Musk said was somewhat vague, with caveats like "looks like" and "maybe". I don't like the insinuation but there are several elements that must be met to prove defamation including that the plaintiff suffered some kind of actual reputational damage.

It's interesting because the entire affair happened on social media for the entire public to see.

The complaint notes that every time Musk insinuated or outright claimed this guy was a Nazi fed, there were people in the comments correcting him. This may make proving that Musk had a willful disregard for the truth a bit easier, it's quite clear that he had no interest in the comments that didn't bolster the conspiracy theory he preferred.

It's less Musk repeating something he heard, but Musk repeating something he heard while knowingly discounting any contrary evidence.

I still think this will be a tough case, as high profile defamation often is, but I don't think it's hopeless.