Elon Musk is facing a lawsuit where he’s accused of spreading a false conspiracy theory about a man from California. The suit claims that Musk falsely identified the man as a federal agent pretending to be a neo-Nazi fighter involved in a government “false flag” operation. The lawsuit has been filed by a 22-year-old named Ben Brody in a Texas state court.
Brody’s legal action is based on Musk’s support for social media posts that compared Brody’s Instagram profile to a picture of a White supremacist from Portland, Oregon, who had confrontations with the Proud Boys during a protest event in June.
Internet personalities used Ben Brody’s social media profile, where he mentioned being a political science major at the University of California, Riverside, and having government career aspirations, to make claims that the street brawl was orchestrated by authorities to discredit right-wing groups. These kinds of “false flag” accusations have also been made about events like the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and various mass shootings.
On June 27, Elon Musk re-tweeted and commented on a blog post that promoted these allegations against Brody. Musk wrote, “Looks like one is a college student (who wants to join the govt),” and he suggested that it might be a “probable false flag situation.”
Ben Brody, who has recently completed his studies, is pursuing a lawsuit against Elon Musk, aiming for a minimum of $1 million in damages. Brody’s legal representation is Mark Bankston, a Texas attorney known for successfully obtaining a $49 million defamation judgment against right-wing host Alex Jones. Jones had falsely asserted that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax and that the bereaved parents were merely actors.
Pedo Guy case
Regarding the “Pedo Guy” case, Elon Musk has not provided any comments through his social media platform X, previously known as Twitter. Additionally, a lawyer often associated with Musk hasn’t responded to an email requesting their input.
This isn’t the first instance where Musk’s statements have led to legal actions. He faced a defamation lawsuit in the past from British cave diver Vernon Unsworth, who Musk called a “pedo guy” after Unsworth criticized Musk’s involvement in the 2018 rescue of Thai schoolchildren trapped in an underwater cave. In December 2019, a jury ruled that Musk had not defamed Unsworth.
Monday’s defamation lawsuit is one of the first legal actions against Elon Musk since he acquired Twitter and began engaging with right-wing conspiracy theories. In his complaint, Ben Brody referenced several instances, including Musk’s initial support for a claim that an attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was linked to a dispute with a male partner. Musk later issued an apology for his statements.
Brody expressed concerns about Musk’s reckless behavior, his history of making false statements without consequences, and his involvement with unreliable and extreme elements on his social media platform. Brody believes this behavior made it inevitable that Musk would wrongly target another innocent private individual, causing significant harm.
Professional outlook
Brody, who follows the Jewish faith, expressed his deep concern about being falsely associated with a person as influential as Musk. He felt troubled that Musk used his name to deny the truth about an incident related to neo-Nazism, especially when Musk had been involved in such actions multiple times recently.
Musk has faced accusations of promoting anti-Semitism by allowing previously banned accounts on his social media platform, X. He also had conflicts with the Anti-Defamation League, which he accused of causing a drop in advertising revenue on the platform.
Brody shared that he and his family faced a barrage of harassment from hostile individuals, apparently driven by Musk’s remarks. He also expressed concerns about potential long-term impacts on his career. He worried that prospective employers might decide not to hire someone connected to a strange controversy involving a neo-Nazi group, especially for public-facing roles.
“Brody is concerned that he will always have to wonder whether his life could have taken a more successful direction if Elon Musk hadn’t recklessly interfered,” mentioned Brody’s lawyers in his lawsuit.
The case is known as Brody v. Musk and is being heard in the Texas District Court, Travis County (Austin).
