Musk: Last month's tweet about Tesla production did not violate court order

Tesla CEO Elon Musk told a New York judge that several tweets he posted last month did not violate an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bloomberg reported. The SEC previously said that Musk's tweets predicting the company's electric vehicle production were misleading and did not comply with previous orders. Musk told the Manhattan federal court on Monday before the deadline that the U.S. Constitution gives him the right to free speech.

The stakes of a run-in with the SEC are high for Musk, who was fined $40 million last year for tweeting about Tesla's take-private plan, stepped down as Tesla chairman and appointed an independent director.

Under the settlement he reached with the SEC, Musk must obtain approval from internal auditors for future tweets related to the company.

If the presiding judge in the case, Alison Nathan, finds that Musk has violated the rules, new penalties could be introduced, as well as tighter controls on Musk's use of social media and even his ability to continue running Tesla or any public company.

Musk's departure from Tesla would also cause panic among shareholders. When the SEC planned to ban him from serving as an executive or director last year, Tesla's market value evaporated by $7.3 billion on September 28. But Musk reached a settlement with the SEC the next day and agreed to step down as chairman for at least three years.

Legal experts say the SEC and the judge in the case are likely to punish Musk in a way that avoids harming shareholders, which means it is unlikely that he will be permanently banned from running Tesla.

The judge will assess a message Musk posted to his 25 million Twitter followers on Feb. 19, in which he gave a 2019 car production figure and then revised it hours later.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.