Diver sues Elon Musk over controversial tweet

A British diver who helped rescue 12 young football players and their coach trapped in a Thai cave is suing Elon Musk.

Diver Vernon Unsworth contends the Tesla chief executive officer falsely accused him of being a paedophile on Twitter and then repeated multiple other falsehoods after the July rescue.

The lawsuit filed in the Los Angeles federal court seeks more than US$75,000 in damages, along with unspecified punitive damages and a court order stopping Musk from making further allegations. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the Associated Press reports.

Musk called Unsworth a “pedo guy” in a tweet to his 22.5 million followers after Unsworth criticised Musk in a July 13 television interview with CNN about the rescue.

Musk and engineers from his rocket company, SpaceX, built a small submarine and shipped it to Thailand to help with the rescue. It wasn’t used and, in the interview, Unsworth called it a “PR stunt” and said it wouldn’t have worked to free the boys who were trapped in the flooded cave. He also said Musk “can stick his submarine somewhere where it hurts”, AP says.

The lawsuit alleges that Musk, apparently angered by Unsworth’s remarks, began a campaign to destroy his reputation “by publishing false and heinous accusations of criminality against him to the public”.

Musk deleted the tweets and apologised after being criticised by shareholders, the lawsuit alleged, stating in a tweet that his words were “spoken in anger” and that the sub was built out of kindness according to specifications from the dive team leader.

But he later tweeted about Unsworth again, including suggesting it was strange the diver hadn’t sued him.

Unsworth reportedly plans to file a second lawsuit with the High Court of London for reputational damage suffered in the United Kingdom.