Supreme Court Dismisses Musk’s Challenge of ‘Twitter Sitter’ Provision by SEC

Elon Musk, tech billionaire and CEO of Tesla, failed in his attempt to challenge a legal agreement with securities watchdog SEC regarding social media posts. The Supreme Court dismissed Musk’s appeal against the New York-based 2nd U.S Circuit Court’s support for SEC in September last year over the alleged ‘Twitter sitter’ provision that required him to have his lawyer review certain Tesla related tweets before posting them online.
Musk criticised this requirement, calling it an unlawful infringement on free speech under US laws after having been previously charged with misleading investors in 2018 over a series of Twitter posts regarding the company’s potential privatisation plans which he later settled by signing off to such social media provisions. The SEC had claimed that Musk’s tweets, “materially false and misleading” violated securities laws at the time.
The 2018 charges stemmed from Musk sharing news on Twitter in August of that year stating he’d secured funding for taking Tesla private, a revelation which sent shares soaring but was later deemed as ‘shocking’ by many observers given its lack of regulatory or shareholder approval.
Last summer, jurors found Musk not liable over misleading investors in the same case; however, he has since complained that such speech restrictions are unconstitutional and argued his lawyers’ claim that SEC had waged an “ongoing campaign” against him which extended to statements beyond securities laws’ scope.
Lower courts also rejected this claim.