I have been surprised more than once by a verdict in a court ruling. My own divorce raised some eyebrows, and last year’s Supreme Court decision to reverse Roe v Wade, well, today is not the day I get started on that one.

Since you know me as one to have an opinion on communications stories when they actually become the stories, I am here to comment on last week’s “not guilty” verdict by jury in Elon getting himself in trouble with Twitter. Rinse. Repeat.

Picture it. August 7, 2018. Elon as Tesla CEO, not today’s Elon who owns Twitter. And is still Tesla’s CEO. SpaceX too. Side note: I would not have bet on either one of the former facts being true in 2023. In fairness, it’s been a crazy few years though.

The Security and Exchange Commission ruled Mr. Musk, Tesla’s CEO, “exaggerated and misled” shareholders when he said funding was secured at $420 per share via a seemingly random tweet. Would it make his girlfriend laugh, a lawyer for the shareholders asked? Insert eye roll. There was actually a string of tweets from Mr. Musk that day, but I’ll focus “just” on this one, sent at 9:48am by the one and only @elonmusk handle. “Funding secured.”

I was aghast then, and again this last week; I can’t believe that a jury of “peers,” who have ALL the opinions about corruption in corporate America, let this one slide. It was a unanimous decision made in two hours. To quote Will Farrell as Elf, “Shocking.”

Every publicly traded company tells employees on day one while their badges are printing, “Be diligent with your communications, never say anything you wouldn’t want quoted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.” Let’s be honest, my parents would be within their rights to get a refund from my expensive schooling if I didn’t know this, even before the HR babysitter’s “corporate responsibility” new hire slide got projected in any of the conference rooms of my jobs past.

Mr. Musk likes to make wise cracks, joke with his followers, and throw a poll or two into his feed, but his August 7, 2018 tweet was a mathematical stock calculation, he says, hand to heart, so help him G-d.

So that trading day back in August of ‘18 was a rocky one; TSLA trades were halted, and the share price ultimately closed 11% higher for the session. Good news? Not so fast.

The proposed $72billion buyout never materialized and the stock’s volatility kicked into high(et) gear.

In walks the litigious American.

While the jokes write themselves, this story does make me take pause. If the CEO of a publicly traded company can take to Twitter and make a thinly veiled marijuana reference in regards to unfounded claims pertaining to the company’s financials and/or cash flow, shouldn’t someone say, “Wait, what?”

The SEC tried, I guess. Last week’s decision pertained to investor complaints; when the SEC sued Mr. Musk he had to step down as Tesla Chairman of the Board (CEO office not included) and pay $20million in fines.

My fear is this decision sets a scary precedent for communications professionals going forward. And what about hackers with the power to disseminate messages that move markets? Fiduciary responsibility, anyone?

“Just because I tweet something does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly.”

- Elon Musk

Wait, what? Even in your CEO role(s)?

Scary times. “Shocking”? Perhaps not so much. Sadly.