Court battle opens in Musk, Twitter buyout fight

The high stakes court battle between Elon Musk and Twitter kicked off yesterday, as the social media firm tries to force the entrepreneur to honour their $44 billion buyout deal.

The first hearing was centering on Twitter's push to set a trial date for as early as September in a case focused on Musk's move to walk away on allegations the platform misled him about its tally of fake accounts.

Billions of dollars are at stake, but so is the future of the platform that Musk has said should allow any legal speech, an absolutist position that has sparked fears the network could be used to incite violence.

The hearing is being held in the eastern state of Delaware.