How Elon Musk is trying to explain away his 'pedo guy' insult in court
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is desperately trying to explain his bizarre "pedo guy" tweets in court.
Musk is being sued for defamation after in 2018 publicly attacking Vernon Unsworth, a diver who helped rescue soccer players trapped in a Thailand cave, by calling him a "pedo guy" on Twitter and later a "child rapist" among other repeated insults. Musk had lashed out after Unsworth dismissed his plan to rescue the players using a mini submarine as a "stunt."
Musk's lawyers have previously argued his insults were simply opinions and not accusations, and Musk made that case in a new court filing Monday. In it, the Tesla CEO says he simply meant to convey his personal "opinion" that Unsworth "appeared to be a weird guy" and that when he called him a "pedo guy," he didn't mean to suggest that he "had engaged in acts of pedophilia." Musk claims, after all, that "pedo guy" was just a "common insult used in South Africa when I was growing up" and meant to "insult a person's appearance and demeanor."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Despite this, Musk then describes how he learned through a private investigator "disturbing information" about Unsworth, including that he allegedly began a relationship with his wife when she was "around twelve years old." It was after hearing this that Musk would accuse Unsworth of being a "child rapist" in an email to BuzzFeed News he says he thought was off the record. In other words, Musk seems to be saying, the insult wasn't serious, until it was.
Musk's defamation trial is set for October.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
-
The UK’s ‘wallaby boom’Under the Radar The Australian marsupial has ‘colonised’ the Isle of Man and is now making regular appearances on the UK mainland
-
Fast food is no longer affordable to low-income AmericansThe explainer Cheap meals are getting farther out of reach
-
‘The money to fix this problem already exists’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
US mints final penny after 232-year runSpeed Read Production of the one-cent coin has ended
-
Warner Bros. explores sale amid Paramount bidsSpeed Read The media giant, home to HBO and DC Studios, has received interest from multiple buying parties
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial uneaseSpeed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B dealspeed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
