US court rejects Musk’s claim against Indian American student

San Francisco, Jan 30 : In a big first round win for Indian American student and Tesla critic Randeep Hothi, a US court has rejected Elon Musk’s argument against him.
Hothi had sued Musk, claiming that the accusation made by the Tesla CEO that he “almost killed” his factory employees is defamatory.
A judge in California state has now rejected Musk’s argument that the suit filed by Hothi was baseless and against his free speech. The judge said that Hothi has shown that he can win the lawsuit, according to media reports.
A doctoral candidate in Asian languages and cultures at the University of Michigan, Hothi created the @skabooshka Twitter account where he fact-checked Musk and Tesla’s “published claims regarding the electric vehicle manufacturer’s automation, technology and production processes,” www.courthousenews.com had reported in August last year.
According to Hothi’s lawyer, his client started fact-checking Tesla via a Twitter account “as a social experiment through crowd-sourcing information related to his social science doctorate work”.
Beginning in 2018, Hothi, donning the role of a social activist, observed Tesla’s production at its Fremont, California-based factory. He also documented the construction of Tesla’s Model 3 assembly line tent, sharing photos of his Twitter followers.