Elon Musk admitted that his posts on the platform formerly known as Twitter may have financially harmed the company in the long run, in a March 27th deposition made public<\/a> on Monday by The Huffington Post<\/em>. The billionaire also admitted to have a \u201climited understanding\u201d of the lawsuit for which he was being deposed. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The 22-year old Ben Brody sued Musk for defamation<\/a> last fall, alleging that Musk pushed a conspiracy theory that falsely identified Brody as being involved in a fight between two far-right groups in Oregon. Musk\u2019s attorney filed multiple requests to keep the transcript of his nearly two-hour testimony confidential, but they were denied by the judge. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n At one point, Musk is asked by Brody\u2019s attorney, Mark Bankston, about his purchase of Twitter and what impact it had on his usage of the site. Musk responded that he believed his posts had \u201creally remained unchanged before and after the acquisition.\u201d But he acknowledged that maintaining that attitude likely did X more harm than good. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe \u2014\u00a0and going back to the sort of self-inflicted wounds, the Kevlar shoes, I think there\u2019s \u2014 I\u2019ve probably done \u2014 I may have done more to financially impair the company than to help it, but certainly I \u2014 I do not guide my posts by what is financially beneficial but by what I believe is interesting or important or entertaining to the public,\u201d said the owner of X.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On multiple occasions, Musk expressed confusion over why Brody was pursuing litigation against him and basic details about the case. At one point he accused Bankston \u2014 Brody\u2019s attorney \u2014 of performing a cash grab by pursuing the lawsuit. \u201cMy \u2014 what I want to think it\u2019s really about is about you getting a lot of money,\u201d said Musk.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The focus of the lawsuit is a series of tweets that Musk made last summer that promoted a far-right conspiracy theory that falsely linked Brody to an Oregon brawl between the Proud Boys and a local neo-Nazi group. Brody, who is based in California, bore a vague resemblance to a participant in the brawl. Online trolls quickly latched onto the theory that the brawl was a \u201cfalse flag,\u201d and that Brody was an undercover government agent. Musk engaged with\u00a0users who were pushing this conspiracy theory on X, agreeing with their conclusions that the brawl was likely a staged incident.\u00a0On June 27th, Musk replied to a post that contained a video of the fight and suggested that Brody was part of a \u201cfalse flag\u201d operation. In truth, Brody was falsely identified by online trolls as one of the men in the video. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cLooks like one is a college student (who wants to join the govt) and another is maybe an Antifa member, but nonetheless a probable false flag situation,\u201d Musk tweeted<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That tweet was directly referenced by Brody\u2019s attorney. Musk argued that his post didn\u2019t have that much reach due to it merely being a reply. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe replies get 100 times less attention than a primary tweet. So this was certainly not any attempt to generate advertising revenue. In fact, generally advertisers would not want to advertise with content that is contentious,\u201d said Musk.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Given the size of Musk\u2019s account and his public prominence, his reply, which still remains on the site, was viewed by over a million people, Brody\u2019s attorney estimated. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou do understand that the amount of people who saw this, who have viewed this tweet, is equivalent to all 30 major baseball stadiums filled to capacity?\u201d asked Bankston. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Musk claimed that Twitter had five to eight trillion views a year, and so a million views wasn\u2019t significant on the platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cNo big deal?\u201d said Bankston.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHit or miss, yeah,\u201d responded Musk.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cNot a big deal that this went out to so many people?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cCorrect. And more of a \u2014 this is kind of the thing where advertisers, when it\u2019s contentious, will not advertise, which means we do not get revenue from it,\u201d Musk responded.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Musk also admitted that he was the owner of an account called @ermnmusk in which he role-played as his own toddler son. Motherboard <\/em>and several other outlets uncovered the mysterious account<\/a> last year. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Musk also made it clear that he didn\u2019t believe that Brody, who was forced to evacuate his home at one point, was \u201cmeaningfully harmed\u201d due to the false accusations that he helped spread. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n