Elon Musk, his X platform face fresh lawsuits in US

SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk and his social media platform X have been slapped with fresh lawsuits, as a 22-year-old college graduate sued the tech billionaire “due to the astonishingly reckless conduct of the wealthiest man on the planet.”

The lawsuit alleged that Musk defamed Benjamin Brody by saying he “participated in a violent street brawl on behalf of a neo-Nazi extremist group”.

Musk also falsely stated that Brody’s alleged participation in the extremist brawl meant the incident was probably a “false flag” operation to deceive the American public, the lawsuit read.

“Two weeks after Musk’s statements, it was apparent to Ben that his reputation had been catastrophically damaged and that a huge number of people believed he was either a neo-Nazi or a provocateur involved in a deceptive “psyop” to commit political terrorism,” the lawsuit alleged.

Musk made these “ridiculously false and damaging accusations” based on a tweet he had seen from an anonymous far-right extremist Twitter account.

Musk amplified the false claims on X, describing Brody’s purported involvement as a “probably false flag situation.”

Musk’s response resulted in a deluge of hate toward Brody.

According to the lawsuit, Brody and his family were “repeatedly doxed and suffered an enormous wave of harassment from belligerent strangers.”

The lawsuit is being led by Mark Bankston, the same lawyer who took Alex Jones to task in court after the right-wing media personality spread Sandy Hook conspiracies for years.

"I am proud to announce I have filed suit against yet another notorious disseminator of false information: The owner of this platform, Elon Musk,” Bankston wrote in a long thread on X late on Monday.

“Musk will not stop until someone stops him. It seems that responsibility now falls upon a shy 22-year-old whose life has been shaken by Musk’s reckless conduct,” he added.

Meanwhile, a company has filed a lawsuit in the US against Musk’s X, over its renaming of Twitter.

The ad agency called X Social Media alleged that X Corp is guilty of violating Florida common law because of “unfair competition and trademark and service mark infringement,” as well as the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.