Tesla boss Elon Musk has failed in his attempt to get rid of controls imposed in 2018 on his social media posts about the electric car manufacturer before the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court dismissed his petition without a hearing.
Musk had argued that the agreement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission at the time violated his constitutional right to free speech. The SEC countered, among other things, that the waiver of fundamental rights to resolve disputes was not unusual.
In 2018, the SEC enforced that Musk should first have the company approve his contributions to the short message service Twitter about Tesla, which could have an impact on the car manufacturer’s share price. Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and has since renamed the platform X. It is unclear how strictly he and Tesla adhere to the requirement. The tech billionaire has already failed in two court attempts to overturn the requirement.
The trigger for the ruling was Musk’s tweets from August 2018. Musk wrote on Twitter at the time that he was considering taking Tesla off the stock exchange. “Funding secured,” he added. This sentence later sparked much controversy because it turned out that there were no written commitments from investors. The SEC accused Musk of misleading investors and, in addition to monitoring his tweets, forced him to resign as chairman of Tesla’s board of directors. Musk and Tesla also each paid a $20 million fine.
