It seems that it isn't that they wouldn't like to, the SEC simply lacks the tools to combat fraud and market manipulation in the digital age. Elon "Pedo Guy" Musk, the billionaire who suggests he is absolutely maybe gonna buy Twitter or not really, is pushing those boundaries in ways the SEC can not enforce.
"We have blunt tools in the securities laws that are designed to penalize fraud," Fagel says. "But if somebody sends a poop emoji and investors decide that they are going to buy or sell stock on that, the securities laws aren't really designed to protect them at that point."
That particular tweet didn't lead to a dramatic move in Twitter's stock price, but several of Musk's other tweets have, including one in which he declared his deal for the company was "temporarily on hold."
Musk seems to have figured out something, Fagel says. In this new world, using the social media platform that Musk is trying to buy, you can mess with markets and it "doesn't really rise to the level of fraud."
