Billionaire spaceboy and Tesla creator Elon Musk says the “pedo guy” tweet that has landed him in the middle of a defamation lawsuit wasn’t actually about pedophilia, instead arguing that it’s just a common insult that was used in South Africa in the ’70s and ’80s.
Musk’s attorneys argued on Monday that Musk understood “pedo guy” to be “synonymous with ‘creepy old man’ and aimed at insulting one’s appearance and demeanor.”
“The term ‘pedo guy’ as used and understood by Mr. Musk is not an accusation of acts of pedophilia,” read the court filing.
Elon Musk’s defense to the Thai diver lawsuit is “pedo guy was a common phrase in South Africa” lol pic.twitter.com/ThhYsO1iuu
— WEF Enjoyer (@lib_crusher) September 16, 2019
Initially, Musk posted the tweet after British diver Vernon Unsworth accused him of grandstanding when he offered to help rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a Thailand cave with a submarine, calling it a “stunt” in July 2018.
Unsworth, a 63-year-old financial broker, is also a cave diver who co-led the rescue operation to save the Thai schoolboys. He was the first foreigner at the scene and had spent years previously navigating the Tham Luang cave system where the boys were trapped.
Musk did eventually apologise for his tweet and deleted it, however he has still found himself being sued over the comments.
Some real gems. Per Elon Musk, Thailand is a “dodgy” part of the world. The whole country. And what does a “pedo guy” look like? This, apparently: pic.twitter.com/AU1L66E6r6
— PlainSite (@PlainSite) September 16, 2019
Lawyers working for Musk appear to be arguing that the terminology is all just insults, not defamation – a pretty bold claim given the Tesla chief’s follow up tweets like “bet you a signed dollar it’s true”.
It was also revealed on Monday that Musk had allegedly funded a private investigator to look into Unsworth.
“The investigator reported that Mr Unsworth was a fixture in Pattaya Beach, Thailand – a locale notorious for prostitution and child trafficking, that he had a taste for young Thai girls, that he whoremongered his way through the go-go bars of Thailand, that his only friends were his ‘sexpat’ peers, and that he married his Thai wife when she was a teenager, after starting a relationship when she was a young girl,” says the response from Musk’s lawyers.
Unsworth, for his part, has denied the claims.
https://twitter.com/GossiTheDog/status/1173713813859971073
Now, I know a few South Africans, and none of them are across this “pedo guy” insult idea – that said, they’re all a bit younger than Musk, too.
One thing that definitely doesn’t help Musk’s case is the fact that he referred to Unsworth as a “child rapist” in emails to a BuzzFeed News reporter.
