A US federal jury in California has held Elon Musk responsible for misleading Twitter shareholders in 2022 through false statements that impacted the company’s stock price. Musk allegedly aimed to alter or cancel a $44 billion acquisition of Twitter with these deceptive statements. The jury determined that two out of three statements Musk made in May 2022, which included tweets and podcast comments about fake accounts on Twitter, were intentionally misleading and led shareholders to sell their stocks.
The court cleared Musk of accusations regarding a fraudulent scheme but acknowledged that his actions constituted deliberate deception. Musk faced allegations for falsely asserting on social media that Twitter had underreported fake and spam accounts. Following the verdict, reports suggest that Twitter investors may receive $2.6 billion in damages, as stated by Mark Molumphy, a lawyer representing the investors.
Elon Musk’s net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, was reported at $661.1 billion. Musk’s social media platform, X, recently announced measures to suspend creators from its revenue-sharing program for 90 days if they post AI-generated videos of armed conflicts without disclosing the use of AI technology. This initiative is part of X’s broader strategy to combat manipulation and ensure access to authentic information during times of conflict.
X’s Product Head, Nikita Bier, introduced the new policy to label content created with artificial intelligence as “Made with AI” on the platform. Amidst the US-Israeli military actions against Iran and the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Musk and Bier reported a record surge in traffic on the platform.
