Free Speech Absolutist Elon Musk Fires Employees For Publicly And Privately Criticizing Him
Twitter’s new owner on Tuesday reportedly fired employees who were found to have made fun of him or made critical comments privately on the company’s Slack channels or publicly on Twitter, according to The New York Times and NBC News, citing information from current and former Twitter employees.
The new batch of firings comes after Eric Frohnhoefer, a long-time Twitter engineer, was fired after publicly questioning one of Musk’s updates.
After a heated back and forth with Frohnhoefer, Musk tweeted a now-deleted “he’s fired,” to which the engineer responded with a saluting emoji.
Musk reportedly had his team comb through Twitter posts and Slack messages and make a list of people who were deemed to have criticized or made fun of him. The total number of the new batch of ‘firees’ is unconfirmed, but in this batch was “anyone who snarkposted about [Musk] in one of the company Slack channels or on Twitter in the last 24 hours,” according to a former employee.
The New York Times was able to review emails that the employees that they were being terminated for “violating company policy.”
“I can’t begin to describe the institutional knowledge they’re taking with them,” one current employee told NBC News. “These were the ones considered too important to cut during layoffs.”
Musk, whose personal brand has deteriorated since entering the Twitter HQ with a ceramic sink, mockingly confirmed the most recent firings later on Tuesday.
Less than a month into being the social media platform’s new owner, Musk has fired about half of its workforce and a majority of its contractors, as part of a “reprioritization and saving exercise.”
Information for this briefing was found via the New York Times, NBC News, and the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
