Interesting suggestion. probably correct as to BI — less likely both as to intent and success if attempted against LATimes and NYT. You might recall Tesla’s legally unsuccessful lawsuit against TopGear in the UK. The UK doesn’t have anything like a first amendment and Tesla had pretty good facts from what I recall, but they still lost. It is hard in the West to succeed on defamation claims.
But I am seeing Peter Thiel’s influence on Musk right now. Both politically and the new litigation threats. Peter Thiel famously (and probably rightly) took down Gawker
The Most Expensive Comment in Internet History?. by litigation except he did it by proxy through funding Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit. I like Peter Thiel for this although am undecided on his other actions, including apparent support for Trump where he must think Trump and many of the people on his administration were corrupt or moronic or both — Yet he still seemed to think the pro-business-sort-of-libertarian policies were enough to allow him to hold his nose and support them. Maybe Musk is doing the same politically now.
And Musk might be looking to do a Gawker against Business Insider, or at least find something to get past motions to dismiss to do discovery on them.
I agree that the tweet recruiting for lawyers is not likely to get enough in house lawyers to fully vertically integrate litigation projects. Litigation work involves very lumpy work — all hands on deck for weeks at a time, and then sometimes just months of waiting doing very little — hard to staff that appropriately in house. Law firms can spread that lumpiness over many clients and allows them to maintain the staff needed. Also I think experienced law firm lawyers are compensated at levels that would be hard for Tesla to stomach even with generous equity comp.
In addition to Peter Thiel, I think Musk may also be influenced by defamation litigation in Asia which is much more a thing. The face-saving culture in Asia results in more, and more tolerance for, legal action against defamation. Whereas insults or out-right lies in the west would be ignored or tolerated with no legal recourse, in Asia, they can and more often do result in litigation. Tesla China is certainly doing that and Tesla US may try it more and while unlikely to ultimately win, as a plaintiff getting to the discovery stage and making the defendants miserable is sort of winning. As more typically a Defendant, Tesla is often on the losing side of that calculation but may be looking for more opportunities as a plaintiff.
