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In 2018, I filed the first defamation lawsuits against Alex Jones, ultimately discrediting him in court. Today, I am proud to announce I have filed suit against yet another notorious disseminator of false information: The owner of this platform, Elon Musk.This new lawsuit was filed on behalf of Ben Brody, a 22-year-old recent college graduate who has been forced to take action due to Musk’s astonishingly reckless conduct here on Twitter.So it seems fitting to post a Twitter thread to provide some information for the media and public about the case. Here is my statement:The lawsuit alleges that on June 27th, in yet another example of his growing tendency to spread false information, Musk falsely told the world there was evidence indicating Ben Brody participated in a violent street brawl on behalf of a neo-Nazi extremist group.Musk also falsely told the world that that Ben Brody’s alleged participation in the extremist brawl meant the incident was probably a “false flag” operation to deceive the American public.Musk made these ridiculously false and damaging accusations based on a tweet he had seen from an anonymous rightwing extremist Twitter account from the revolting “Groyper” subculture. Musk amplified the accusations for two days before finally defaming Ben himself on June 27th.You can read the entire lawsuit posted at the bottom of the article below, and I will also summarize some of the details here.The story begins on June 24th during Portland’s Pride Night, when multiple rightwing extremist groups, irritated and triggered by the idea of public solidarity with queer people, decided to attend the event to vent their bigotry and intimidate Pride Night celebrants.However, during the event, a street brawl developed between a group of extremist Proud Boys and rival group Rose City Nationalists, a fellow rightwing extremist gang that uses neo-Nazi aesthetics.During the brawl, two masked members of the Rose City Nationalists had their masks removed. Video of the incident went viral on June 25th. Numerous online influencers urged their followers to identify the unmasked members.An anonymous internet user located a photo of Ben Brody on the social media account of his Jewish fraternity at UC Riverside. Based on nothing more than a passing resemblance between Ben and the unmasked neo-Nazi, an accusation was made.The social media post for Ben’s fraternity stated that Ben planned to work for the government after college. Online accusers insisted this meant Ben was participating in a “false flag” to create an illusion of white supremacist gangs.On June 25th, a Dogecoin-themed Twitter user showed Musk a tweet from an anonymous rightwing extremist “Groyper” account making the accusation against Ben Brody, which included screenshots of the fraternity’s social media post stating Ben planned to work for the government.Musk responded by stating, “Very odd.” While not yet defamation, this was already pretty bad. Musk was amplifying unvetted slander against an innocent young man being disseminated by an anonymous extremist troll and an anonymous cryptocurrency fan.As detailed in Ben’s lawsuit, numerous Twitter users began immediately informing Musk that Ben was innocent.Yet early the next morning, on June 26th, Musk also responded to Twitter user Matt Wallace, a cryptocurrency YouTuber who frequently vies for Musk’s attention, after Wallace tweeted the same screenshots noting that Ben planned to work for the government.Musk responded, “Always remove their masks.” This wasn’t defamation either, but he’s getting closer. And again, Musk was helping disseminate a bogus accusation against an innocent and increasingly terrified young man, which is just an objectively awful thing to do.That same morning, Ben made an Instagram video trying to dispel the accusations. He also posted screenshots of debit card payments in Riverside. He even went as far to request video footage from a restaurant he visited at the time of the brawl, which he also posted.Throughout the day, Twitter users continued to inform Musk that Ben Brody was innocent, and many of them provided a link to Ben’s Instagram video. But it was to no avail.The following day, on June 27th, Musk threw the full weight of his celebrity behind the accusation and defamed Ben. He did it in a response to a tweet from anonymous blog “ZeroHedge.”
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