Technology and Financial Markets

Elon Musk took the stand in a federal shareholder trial in San Francisco, where investors allege he violated U.S. securities laws by making false and misleading tweets that drove down Twitter’s stock price before his $44 billion takeover in 2022. The class action, filed in the Northern District of California on behalf of shareholders who sold between May 13 and Oct. 4, 2022, centers on Musk’s public claims that the deal was 'temporarily on hold' and could not go forward because of spam and fake accounts, despite no such pause being allowed under the signed merger agreement. Questioned by plaintiffs’ lawyer Aaron Arnzen, Musk admitted he did not ask about Twitter’s bot‑count methodology before waiving due diligence, said he assumed SEC filings were accurate, and maintained that he was 'simply speaking [his] mind' rather than trying to move the market. Twitter’s stock dropped nearly 10% after his May 13, 2022 'temporarily on hold' tweet and had previously spiked 27% in a day when he first disclosed his stake, reinforcing the core question of whether a CEO’s social‑media comments about a live deal can amount to market manipulation. The case could help define the legal limits on deal‑related tweeting by powerful executives at a time when social platforms are central to investor sentiment and stock volatility.