Elon Musk still needs 'permission' from Tesla lawyer to tweet, rules US federal court

It seems that Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter isn’t exactly free to tweet whatever he wants. Instead, he needs to consult his lawyer before he can tweet, at least for the tweets that pertain to Tesla. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan has ruled that Elon Musk cannot back out of a settlement with securities regulators regarding his 2018 tweets about taking Tesla private. The tweets caused Tesla’s share price to jump rapidly, which led to trading being temporarily halted. **Also read: Elon Musk hits back at US securities regulators for complaint about his Tesla tweet** Musk had challenged a lower court’s ruling requiring him to abide by the settlement, citing changed circumstances and claiming that the settlement violated the First Amendment. The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandated that Musk’s tweets be pre-approved by a Tesla attorney and imposed civil fines on both Musk and Tesla. Why can’t Musk tweet about Tesla? The tweets in question stated that Musk had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share, which turned out to be inaccurate as Tesla remained a public company. The 2nd Circuit Court stated that it found no evidence supporting Musk’s claim that the SEC conducted bad-faith investigations into his protected speech using the consent decree. The court also rejected Musk’s argument about prior restraint, noting that parties entering consent decrees can voluntarily waive their First Amendment rights. **Also read: Tesla on my mind 24/7, spending less than 5% of time on Twitter acquisition, says Elon Musk** With this ruling, Musk is required to adhere to the settlement terms, including the pre-approval requirement for his tweets and the payment of civil fines. Elon Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, has stated that they will seek further review and continue to highlight the issue of government constraints on speech. Musk has the option to appeal to the full 2nd Circuit or to the U.S. Supreme Court. Musk and SEC’s coloured history The SEC was investigating Musk’s tweets from November 2021, in which he asked his Twitter followers if he should sell 10 per cent of his Tesla stock. **Also read: Tesla CEO Elon Musk sued by US SEC for fraud and issuing 'misleading' statements** The SEC was examining whether these tweets violated a settlement Musk signed in October 2018 after the SEC brought an enforcement action against him for his tweets about taking Tesla private, which were alleged to have violated securities laws’ antifraud provisions. In April 2022, Judge Lewis Liman ruled that Musk had sent the tweets without obtaining pre-approval as required by the settlement. Under the settlement, Musk and Tesla were each required to pay $20 million in fines for Musk’s tweets about having secured funding to take Tesla private, even though the funding was not actually secured. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.