For those who came in late, Elon Musk made a controversial tweet describing a british diver as a “pedo guy” after the diver questioned the efficacy of Elon’s plan some months back to help rescue the Thai boys soccer team stranded underwater in a cave.

“Shocked by (the diver’s) indefensible and baseless attacks, Musk answered to defend himself and the efforts of SpaceX, Tesla and the Boring Company employees who had given up their days and nights to help find a solution”, reads a motion from Elon’s attorneys to dismiss the diver’s defamation lawsuit against him.

“Musk took to Twitter — a social networking website infamous for invective and hyperbole — to respond.”

The motion to dismiss goes on to argue that Elon’s 22 million followers on Twitter — as well as anyone who doesn’t follow him but who read the tweets — should have known they “were not intended to be statements of fact”.

The diver had given an interview to CNN in which he called Musk’s plan to rescue the soccer team effectively a “PR stunt”.

However, the diver’s attorney, Lin Wood, said Elon’s motion to dismiss the defamation suit doesn’t have any grounding in the law or reality.

“I entirely reject Musk’s frivolous contention that all statements published on Twitter or other social media are protected speech”, Wood said in a statement given to CNBC.

“I am confident the trial court will likewise reject this fanciful position which if adopted would effectively prevent an individual from seeking redress for any and all false and defamatory attacks on reputation published on the Internet.”

The diver is asking for at least $75,000 in damages.