Elon Musk still needs 'Twitter sitter,' judges rule
NBCAPR 2023
The Spin
Narrative A
As this consent decree is a government-imposed muzzle on Elon Musk, the Twitter CEO's lawyers are right to pursue further litigation until his First Amendment rights are returned. Musk agreed to acknowledge his past poor judgment and pay some fines — not to allow the SEC to monitor his every thought and block him from exercising his free speech rights on his own social media platform.
Narrative B
Even though Elon Musk agreed to have his tweets reviewed by a lawyer and the SEC had the right to investigate breaches of the agreement, the agency still only probed three out of his countless tweets since the settlement was signed. Despite Musk's decision to waive his First Amendment rights, the government has not come close to violating his freedom of speech.