FILE PHOTO: Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk speaks during the National Governors Association Summer Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S., July 15, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo 
 
 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk said the tweet that cost him and the company $20 million in fines each by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision was “Worth It”. 
 
 The tweet, sent late Friday evening less than an hour before Musk tweeted that he would take a break from Twitter “for a few days,” was in response to a question from a Twitter follower. 
 
 The SEC in September charged Musk, 47, with misleading investors with tweets on Aug. 7 that said he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 a share and had secured funding. The tweets had no basis in fact, and the ensuing market chaos hurt investors, regulators claimed. 
 
 Tesla Inc and Elon Musk have agreed to pay $20 million each to financial regulators and the billionaire will step down as the company’s chairman but remain as chief executive, under a settlement. 
 
 Under the settlement agreement, Tesla needs to appoint an independent chairman by Nov. 13. 

 Photo: Chris Carlson (AP) 
 
 It’s arguably unfathomable that any human being slapped with a $20 million fine for a bad tweet would ever consider returning to the platform, much less continue to fire off word salad at all hours of the day and night. In the face of any logical explanation, however, one such man seemingly continues to insist that he is not owned. 
 
 
 
 Tweeting Friday evening in a thread about “criticism” and “like” ratios on Twitter’s platform, Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared to claim that his disastrous “420” tweet in August about taking the electric car company private was “worth” the tens of millions of dollars in fines regulators levied on him in response. 
 
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 Why? The likes. 
 
 Earlier this month, a judge officially approved Tesla’s settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission after it argued that Musk made “false and misleading” statements in regards to going private. In the settlement, Musk and Tesla agreed to each pay a fine of $20 million, with Musk also forced to step down as Tesla’s chairman for at least three years. Tesla was also required to rein in Musk’s communications with investors. 
 
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 This was a mere weeks ago. 
 
 Remarkably, Musk later tweeted that he was going to sign “off Twitter for a few days,” which honestly doesn’t seem like such a bad long-term plan either. In fact, maybe we should all log off. 

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– Elon Musk apparently has no regrets about a tweet that set him and Tesla back each $20 million. In a tweet late Friday—just before tweeting that he would be taking a break from Twitter—Musk responded to a question about his ill-fated tweet claiming he would take the company private, which resulted in $40 million in SEC fines and him stepping down as company chairman, reports Reuters. "Worth It," he tweeted. Given that the ink is barely dry on the SEC fines, Gizmodo thinks that Musk's plan to take a break from "(firing) off word salad at all hours of the day and night" for a while "doesn’t seem like such a bad long-term plan."