· X post
Musk announces on Twitter that engineer who publicly disputed him is fired; others dismissed over criticism
What he said or did
After Android engineer Eric Frohnhoefer publicly contradicted Musk's explanation of why the app was slow, Musk posted He's fired.
Bloomberg reported that a second engineer, Ben Leib, was also fired after a critical retweet, and Platformer reported that about 20 employees who had criticised Musk in internal Slack channels were fired by email.
Background
The dismissals came within weeks of Musk's $44 billion takeover, during which roughly half of Twitter's 7,000-plus staff were cut. Musk described himself as a free speech absolutist.
Official response
Twitter, whose communications team had largely been laid off, did not respond to requests for comment. Termination emails reported by Platformer said the employees' recent behavior has violated company policy.
What happened next
Musk deleted the He's fired
post the next day; CBS News reported it was unclear whether that changed the termination.
Sources
- Fortune (Bloomberg)14 Nov 2022
- CBS News15 Nov 2022
- Semafor15 Nov 2022
This entry records what was publicly said or done, as reported by the sources above. Quotes are attributed to the person who made them.
