A tweet can be worth a thousand discussion , or in Elon Musk ’s guinea pig , gazillion of dollar . And masses on Twitter are stimulate a troubled clock time with the news program .

In a settlement reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC ) on Saturday , September 29 , Elon Musk will tread down as Tesla president ( although he will stay on as CEO ) , following a tweet that sparked a Union investigation . And he ’ll also give a mulct of $ 20 million , aswill Tesla .

On August 7 , 2018 , he stake a now - ill-famed tweet , order : “ Am considering taking Tesla individual at $ 420 . financial support ensure . ”

The manipulation of 420 is ajoke about smoke marijuana , with that number being a popular full term to denote the consumption of cannabis . alas , the SEC did not find out it funny at all .

The tweet paint a picture Musk would take Tesla off the stock mart . The “ false and misleading ” claims , as the SEC call up them , risked misinform investors into cogitate the company already had the funding to   go individual .

Musk will step down as chairman of Tesla forthree days , starting in November . He has yet to remark on the colony , although he did tweet a medicine telecasting of American hip record hop group Naughty by Nature earlier today . As you do .

“ This topic reaffirms an crucial principle embodied in our revelation - based federal security department law , ” astatementfrom the SEC read . “ Specifically , when companies and corporal insiders make statements , they must work responsibly . ”

And while it ’s bad newsworthiness for Musk , people   on Twitter have been quick to point out how a single tweet turn a loss the world ’s leading electric car fellowship its visionary chair . You might even say , yes , they were all making the same joke .

There were also rumors that Musk tweeted the original joke to make his girlfriend , Canadian vocaliser Grimes , joke .

And there were some more , uh , out there theories that the whole thing is a ploy by Musk to in reality take the company private .

It ’s not all high-risk word for Musk though , as it looks like Tesla ’s stock has actually resile watch over the settlement .

Still , just a reminder to any Twitter - happy principal executives out there – maybe suppose double before send off that uproarious tweet . Just in vitrine , you hump , it ’s not in reality that funny .