Cave diver Vernon Unsworth was seeking $190 million in damages after Musk called him a 'Pedo guy' on Twitter.
Musk, who testified during the first two days of the trial in his own defence and returned to court on Friday to hear closing arguments from the two sides, exited the courtroom after the verdict and said: "My faith in humanity is restored."
The case is believed to be the first major defamation lawsuit by a private individual to go to trial over tweets.Unsworth's attorney L Lin Wood summed up his case against Musk by calling the high-tech entrepreneur a "billionaire bully" who had "dropped a nuclear bomb" on Unsworth in a series of tweets suggesting he was a paedophile.
But the jury, in its unanimous decision, was apparently swayed by the arguments put forth by Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, who said the Twitter message in question arose from an argument between two men and amounted to an off-hand insult that no one could be expected to take seriously.
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