US regulators must stop trying to silence Elon Musk. TechCrunch recently reported that US securities regulators said they had the power to subpoena the Tesla CEO over his tweets and were pressuring a federal judge not to let Elon “get away with tweeting with abandonment”.
Earlier this year, Elon Musk called the actions of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) harassment and wrongful action. Although he settled with the SEC in 2018 over the “420” tweet, he asked his followers last year if he should sell 10% of his stake in Tesla, which the article says has caused Tesla shares to fall sharply. After Elon Musk sold roughly $16 billion worth of stock ($11 billion for taxes and the other $5.7 billion donated to charity) the SEC issued a subpoena because it wanted to make sure Elon Musk was complying with the regulations.
by Elon Musk full statement on SEC Harassment is as follows:
“This wrongful action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed. I have always acted in the interests of truth, transparency and investors. Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show that I never compromised that in any way.
Since then, Elon has been trying to terminate or modify the 2018 consent decree. SEC Regulator Melissa Armstrong write the following in a filing in Manhattan federal court:
“In 2018, to settle the SEC action against him, Musk agreed to comply with mandatory Tesla procedures requiring pre-approval of certain of his Tesla-related public communications.
“Musk can no longer reject the amended Final Judgment simply because he found complying with Tesla’s procedures less convenient than he had hoped, or because he wants the SEC not to investigate for whether Tesla’s disclosure controls and procedures are actually maintained and followed. ”
As for Elon Musk’s accusation against the SEC of punishing him for exercising his constitutional right to free speech under the First Amendment as well as other complaints, Armstrong wrote:
“But Musk’s own timeline of the alleged demands is both disappointing and reflects legitimate investigations into potentially violent new conduct by Tesla and Musk — including the conduct that prompted the SEC’s 2018 enforcement actions.
“As long as Musk and Tesla use Musk’s Twitter account to disclose information to investors, the SEC can legitimately investigate matters relating to Tesla’s disclosure controls and procedures, including Musk’s tweets about Tesla, as well as the accuracy of Tesla’s public statements regarding its controls and procedures.”
US regulators are focusing on the wrong thing
I feel like these US regulators are pretty tough on Elon here. I’ve seen extreme Tesla critics (especially those who identify as “TSLAQ”) use manipulation tactics on Twitter in order to negatively affect Tesla’s stock price. I’ve seen some mainstream media amplify those voices. This group has been tracking and targeting Tesla owners and supporters for some time now. Looking back, it’s clear that Elon’s tweets aren’t the real problem in my view.
A single post
Elon Musk and Tesla are in a rather unique position. Since Tesla doesn’t pay for advertising and doesn’t have a PR team. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing – Elon has said before that he’d rather see Tesla use the money to develop its products than waste the money on advertising and PR.
However, this made Elon Musk Tesla’s standalone PR. Although I have been repeatedly accused of being a paid PR or a secret Tesla PR on Twitter, and sometimes even in the comments of some of my articles, I am not, and other owners and/or Neither do Tesla supporters. who often interact with Elon on Twitter.
I think Elon answers questions for two main reasons: he genuinely cares about the needs of his customers and supporters, and when he sees a question that relates to information that should be made public, he answers it. As to why he mostly replies to a few Tesla owners – I think it’s all down to Twitter’s algorithm, honestly. However, I am not an expert on the subject and these are just my opinions.
All of that being said, it puts Elon Musk himself in a very unique position. Add to that its millions of subscribers and you’ll see why Tesla doesn’t need advertising or PR. Even before he had over 70 million followers, Elon always found a way to make his voice heard.
And now the SEC is doing its best to silence it. It’s because of Elon’s position. US regulators don’t want one person to have as much influence as Elon. However, I think they need to back off. If they’re okay with ‘TSLAQ’ stalking and harassing people on Twitter just to impact the stock in some way, then Elon should be allowed to tweet freely in accordance with his rights to the first amendment. Again, this is just my opinion.