Twitter CEO Elon Musk has apologised after publicly mocking a physically-challenged employee who was unsure if he had been fired by the company.
On Tuesday, Haraldur “Halli” Thorleifsson, who has muscular dystrophy, tweeted that it was uncertain if he was still employed by the micro-blogging platform as he had failed to get a response from the company’s human resources department.
Thorleifsson was named Iceland’s person of the year in 2022 for his philanthropic endeavours which included getting 1500 wheelchair ramps installed across the Nordic country.
Dear @elonmusk 👋
9 days ago the access to my work computer was cut, along with about 200 other Twitter employees.
However your head of HR is not able to confirm if I am an employee or not. You've not answered my emails.
Maybe if enough people retweet you'll answer me here?
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 6, 2023
Thorleifsson and Musk had an exchange on Twitter which went viral, with many people finding Twitter CEO’s attitude rude and disrespectful.
Musk also said that ‘’the reality is that this guy (who is independently wealthy) did no actual work, claimed as his excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing, yet was simultaneously tweeting up a storm. Can’t say I have a lot of respect for that’’.
The reality is that this guy (who is independently wealthy) did no actual work, claimed as his excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing, yet was simultaneously tweeting up a storm.
Can’t say I have a lot of respect for that.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2023
The South African-born billionaire received backlash for his sentiments and was accused of being an ableist (ableism is the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior) by users on the platform.
However, on Wednesday, the tech billionaire said that he had a video call with Thorleifsson to ‘’figure out what’s real vs what I was told’’ and mentioned that it was ‘’better to talk to people than communicate via tweet’’.
He apologised to Thorleifsson for misunderstanding the situation and said that ‘’it was based on things I was told that were untrue or, in some cases, true but not meaningful. He is considering remaining at Twitter’’.
According to reports, the Icelandic man was also on Twitter’s ‘’do not fire’’ list because his contract apparently dictates that he be given $100 million in the event that he is let go by the social media company.
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