During a deposition his lawyer tried to keep confidential, Elon Musk says 'people are attacked all the time' on social media, but it rarely has 'a meaningful negative impact on their life'

SoftwarePlatformsDuring a deposition his lawyer tried to keep confidential, Elon Musk says ‘people are attacked all the time’ on social media, but it rarely has ‘a meaningful negative impact on their life’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Elon Musk steepling his hands and looking sombre.

(Image credit: @elonmusk on Twitter/X.)

A post that reads: “Looks like one is a college student (who wants to join the govt) and another is maybe an Antifa member, but nonetheless a probable false flag situation @CommunityNotes”

Musk theorised that two members in the footage looked like “a college student (who wants to join the government” and “maybe an Antifa member”. This led to Brody being falsely accused of being a federal agent plant in the Rose City Nationalists, the local neo-nazi group in question.After another user falsely identified himas such, Muskresponded: “Always remove their masks.”

Brody, who wasn’t even in the state at the time, is seeking over $1 million in damages—and says that the harassment following Musk’s seeming endorsement of Brody’s false identification forced his family to move home. As for the deposition itself, it starts as it means to go on—that is to say, disastrously.

“You’re aware that Ben Brody is somebody who’s sued you, right?” asks Brody’s attorney Mark Bankston, to which Musk replies: “I think you’re the one suing.”

“I am going to interrupt again,” Spiro announces after several such interruptions, before asking how the tweet Bankston is referencing is relevant to the case. Bankston replies: “This is what he posted on the day of the brawl, and this case is about whether the brawl was being accused to be a psyop … Mr. Spiro, I really have to ask you to get yourself up to speed on the facts of this case.”

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Mr. Spiro argues: “This isn’t a real case, this is just some stupid—” Brankston cuts him off. The conversation dovetails, and shortly after both Spiro and Musk ask Brankston why he’s yelling.

(Image credit: Texas State Court / via Huffington Post)

A transcript of a deposition in the Texas State Court.

Later in the deposition, Musk maintains that he hasn’t caused Brody any serious harm. When asked if he understands the amount of views his tweet received equal “all 30 major league baseball stadiums filled to capacity”, Musk replies:

“That may seem like a large number, but it is not compared to the fact—I believe there are something on the order of five to eight trillion views per year, so a million is really—” Bankston finishes his sentence with a “not a big deal?” to which Musk replies “Hit or miss, yeah.”

As for allegations of harm caused, Musk argues that “people are attacked all the time in the media, online media, social media, but it is rare that that actually has a meaningful negative impact on their life.”

Towards the end of the disposition, Spiro replies to a question as to whether he would like a transcript: “Yes, and please mark it confidential.” A baffled Bankston, more familiar with Texas law, responds: “What? No. There’s no [protective order] in this case.”

Since you’re reading this article, Spiro’s attempts to keep the deposition quiet have clearly failed. I genuinely, wholeheartedly recommend you read thewhole thing for yourselfif you have the time to sift through the 108-page transcript—it’s a genuinely fascinating window into the case, filled with far more bickering than one might expect.

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