Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Elon Musk’s tweets calling caver Vernon Unsworth, who was involved in the rescue of 13 people from a cave in Thailand, a “pedo guy” are not defamation, a jury found. As a result, Musk will not be liable for damages, according to the ruling.
The standard in the case is recklessness, which means Musk didn’t check to see if what he was saying was true before he tweeted it. The jury had to be convinced by a preponderance of the evidence that this was true, a lower standard than “actual malice.”
Since Tuesday, the Los Angeles court has heard testimony from Unsworth, Musk, and others about the tweets. Musk has maintained that he viewed his tweets as insults, which are not defamation; on Tuesday, he testified that Twitter is “where people…