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- Elon Musk might be the world's most extremely online billionaire
- The Tesla CEO, worth an estimated $26 billion, has a habit of getting into fights and long-running feuds over the internet.
- Musk is an enthusiastic Twitter user and often jokes around with his followers — but sometimes takes it too far.
- Here are his weirdest fights.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Elon Musk has a combative streak.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is famously unpredictable as chief executives go, a personality trait which has sometimes landed him in trouble — particularly with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
But Musk's combative side doesn't just express itself in skirmishes with government agencies. The Tesla billionaire has ended up in bizarre spats with a strange array of people — from fellow billionaires to artists to rescue divers — and often via his preferred medium of Twitter.
The twists and turns in the stories of Musk's various battles are no less baffling, and it can be hard to remember all the different ways Musk has squared up to various public figures and regular citizens.
We've catalogued his weirdest fights.
1. When he called a complete stranger "pedo guy"
REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun
Vernon Unsworth is the British diver who participated in the rescue of 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave system in June 2018. It was a difficult, complex operation and the boys were successfully rescued after being trapped for 17 days by international divers and Thai Navy SEALs. Unsworth, an experienced cave explorer, was asked by Thai officials to aid in the rescue.
He had never met Elon Musk, but would go on to spend most of 2019 locked in a legal battle with the Tesla billionaire.
Musk had inserted himself into the Thai rescue operation and offered to build a mini-submarine to fetch the boys. The idea never materialized.
Unsworth was asked about Musk's submarine in an interview with CNN, and described it in unflattering terms, describing it as a PR stunt. He added that Musk could "stick his submarine where it hurts."
That angered Musk, who subsequently wrote a post on Twitter calling Unsworth a "pedo guy." When a Twitter user challenged him over it, he replied "bet ya a signed dollar it's true."
His remarks immediately triggered headlines around the world, despite the fact he provided no proof for the "pedo" claim.
Musk doubled down on the allegation by emailing BuzzFeed reporter Ryan Mac and calling Vernon Unsworth a "child rapist", with no evidence
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Censured by critics for using the slur, Musk deleted his tweet and apologised, but he didn't leave it there. A month later he responded to a Twitter user who criticised him. "You don't think it's strange he hasn't sued me? He was offered free legal services," Musk tweeted, referring to Unsworth.
Then in September 2018, he doubled down. BuzzFeed reporter Ryan Mac emailed Musk asking for comment on a legal threat made by Unsworth's lawyer. Musk replied, suggesting Unsworth was a "child rapist" and "I hope he fucking sues me."
Musk prefaced the email to Mac with "off the record," but the journalist had never agreed to go off the record, and published the entire exchange. Documents later revealed Musk called himself a "fucking idiot" for sending the email to Mac in the first place.
A few weeks after Mac's article was published Unsworth sued Musk for defamation.
Musk is now embroiled in a long-running court battle with Unsworth for his defamatory remarks. Court filings revealed Musk hired a detective to investigate Unsworth — but the PI turned out to be a conman
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Musk and Unsworth have now been locked in a legal fight for over a year.
The case has thrown up some bizarre findings.
Court filings revealed that Musk paid a man named James Higgins-Howard $50,000 to investigate Unsworth and relay reports to Musk's family office.
Higgins-Howard emailed Musk out of the blue following the initial "pedo guy" tweet to offer his services as a private detective. "You may want to dig deep into Mr. Unsworth['s] past to prepare for his defamation claim," Higgins-Howard wrote, adding "no smoke without fire!"
Higgins-Howard didn't find any evidence, however, and BuzzFeed's Ryan Mac later reported that the would-be PI had previously been convicted of fraud. Musk admitted in a deposition that he later realised Higgins-Howard was "just taking us for a ride."
In depositions Musk has also argued that by calling Unsworth "pedo guy" he wasn't literally accusing him of being a pedophile because the term was used to be synonymous with "creepy old man" when he was growing up in South Africa. He also claimed he was genuinely worried Unsworth could be "another Jeffrey Epstein."
The defamation case is still ongoing, and the trial is due to take place in December.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
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- In the battle of the Tesla Model S and the Porsche Taycan, it's really no contest
- Elon Musk tore into billionaire Tesla skeptic David Einhorn, mockingly calling him 'Mr. Unicorn'
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