Musk files plea seeking to end restrictions that required supervision for some tweets

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc, has asked a federal district court to terminate his 2018 agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that requires some of his tweets containing business-related information to be vetted before publication.

Musk’s lawyers have asked the court to block a summons issued by the top US securities regulator requesting records of pre-approval of a Twitter poll he conducted in November on potentially selling some of his stock.

"The more the SEC monitors Mr. Musk’s Twitter activity, and forces others to do the same, the more Mr. Musk’s freedom of expression is infringed," Musk's lawyers wrote to USDistrict Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan.

Musk’s lawyers said the 2018 consent decree resolving SEC securities fraud charges should not allow "roving and unbounded investigations" into the Tesla CEO, while impeding his constitutional right to free speech.

Musk’s team is also seeking to quash a 2021 subpoena by the SEC on whether Tesla approved his tweet poll asking users if he should sell 10% of his stake in the electric-auto maker.

Notably, a majority approved, and the poll sent Tesla sharesinto a slump. Musk has since sold $16.4bn of stock.

The tweet called into question Musk’s compliance with his SEC agreement to obtain approval from a Tesla lawyer before publishing.

According to the filing, Musk felt "forced" to sign the initial 2018 agreement because "the SEC’s action stood to jeopardise the company’s financing" and "protracted litigation" would not be in shareholders’ interest.

(With inputs from agencies)