Tesla CEO Elon Musk Twitter Account Could Get Shut Down

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter account has always been an unconventional source of news when it comes to the latest updates of his companies, SpaceX and Tesla. But this could change because Musk’s social media account could get shut down by a judge.

The CEO billionaire’s latest conflict with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has placed Musk under consideration for contempt of court. According to The Verge, the SEC believes that the visionary violated his settlement agreement by tweeting that Tesla will manufacture 500,000 cars this year without the advice of a lawyer. Because of this, there might be grounds for the court to actually shut down his Twitter account.

Musk’s whole debacle with the SEC actually happened because of the business magnate’s constant tweeting of sensitive information. In August last year, for example, Musk tweeted that he was planning to make Tesla private, a statement which shocked almost everyone in the industry.

“Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured,” Musk said in the tweet.

This time, Musk is once more in trouble with the SEC for tweeting that his company is poised to produce 500,000 cars this year. This was done after the company officially released its statement to investors that they should expect 360,000 to 400,000 units for 2019.

Musk tried to remedy the statement with a clarification four hours later but the damage was already done. Per SEC the problem is not only inaccuracy of information but because the tweets were released without prior review. The settlement agreement between Musk and the SEC required lawyers to review social media posts about Tesla before they get released.

This puts the CEO in a predicament. Musk has already been extremely penalized by the SEC before, making him pay a $20 million fine and getting him to step down as chairman of the company.

Analysts believe that making him step down as CEO now would do more harm than good. So the next option could probably be shutting down his Twitter account, which appears to be the cause of most of his problems with the SEC.

However, former SEC commissioner Harvey Pitt believes that this is not an option.

“I’m doubtful the court can — or would — order Mr. Musk to stop tweeting and/or delete his Twitter account. That type of order would smack of First Amendment infringement, I suspect,” Pitt said.