Elon Musk promised that X will pay the legal costs of all those who have been treated “unfairly” by employers due to a tweet or a “like” on the social network which, until a few weeks ago, it was known as Twitter.
With a post published on X, the entrepreneur let it be known that “If you have been treated unfairly by your employer due to the publication or liking of something on this platform, we will finance your legal costs”.
If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill.
No limit.
Please let us know.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2023
Musk also added that “there are no limits” to the reimbursement of these expenses. In response to one of the comments on his post, the owner of X also wrote: “We will not only sue, it will be extremely loud and we will also prosecute the boards of companies.”
The entrepreneur’s claims, for now, are not reflected in the X “Help Center” that it collects the main answers to the problems that users may run into, from suspended account to privacy.
Many users have complimented Musk. “This is progress,” writes Ryan Fournier. “You are the hero of free speech,” says Sarah Ashton-Cirillo.
Right on defense of “freedom of speech” Elon Musk has built, at least initially, his plan to take over Twitter. “Since Twitter is a public square, the fact that it fails to adhere to the fundamental principles of freedom of expression is a danger to democracy,” the entrepreneur wrote shortly before formulating his offer of 44 billion dollars for the platform .
The clash Freedom of speech according to Elon Musk: X sues a nonprofit that fights hate speech by Bruno Ruffilli 01 August 2023
It is not clear what led Musk to expose himself so decisively on legal costs in favor of “discriminated” employees. His post, pposted at 5am last Saturdaylooks a lot like one of those utterances that the new CEO of X, Linda Yaccarinoadvised him to avoid.
Yaccarino, who recently took over from Musk as CEO of the platform, invited his boss to don’t post anything on X after three in the morning. For Yaccarino the tweets shared late at night by Musk often damage the reputation of the social network and are seen as “unprofessional”.
Musk’s promise clashes with the treatment that the entrepreneur himself has reserved, in the past, to his employees. Last November, shortly after closing the acquisition of Twitter, Musk has fired at least three engineers of the social network because they had dared to criticize the new entrepreneur online. One of these, Eric Frohnhoeferwas kicked out 24 hours after contradicting Musk on the social networking app’s performance.
Another former Twitter software engineer, Nick Morgan, was instead fired by Musk for criticizing the entrepreneur on one of the company’s Slack channels. “I think it happened because I didn’t prove myself 100% loyal to Slack – wrote Morgan in November 2022 -. I’ve heard that many others have met the same fate.”
A Sasha Solomona 34-year-old engineer who has openly criticized Musk with a tweet, and that she was fired immediately after, the New York Times dedicated a long article last December in which she told her story. Solomon was dismissed with an email – the same as many others received from Twitter employees in late 2022 – in which it was written: “Your recent behavior violated company policies”.
I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
In April 2022, after officially announcing his intention to buy the social network, Musk wrote: “I hope that even those who criticize me fiercely stay on Twitter, because this is what freedom of speech means”.
Ever since Musk broke into Twitter headquarters with a sink, officially assuming control of the company, about 80% of the employees were fired. The social network, recently renamed X, now employs around 1,500 people.