Elon Musk backs down after mocking disabled Twitter worker in tweet storm | Twitter
If you’re not told you’re fired, are you really fired? On Twitter, probably.
Haraldur Thorleifsson, who until recently was employed by Twitter, logged on to his computer last Sunday to do some work – only to be banned, along with 200 others.
He might have figured, as others before him have in the chaotic months of layoffs and firings since Elon Musk took over the company, that he was out of a job.
Instead, after nine days of no response from Twitter on whether or not he was still employed, Thorleifsson decided to tweet Musk to see if he could get the billionaire’s attention and get an answer to the Schrödinger’s job situation.
“Maybe if enough people retweet, you’ll reply to me here?” he wrote on Monday.
Dear @elonmusk ????
9 days ago, access to my work computer was cut, along with about 200 other Twitter employees.
But your HR manager cannot confirm whether I am employed or not. You have not responded to my emails.
Maybe if enough people retweet you will reply to me here?
— Halli (@iamharaldur) March 6, 2023
He finally got his answer after a surreal Twitter exchange with Musk, who went on to ask him about his work, question his disability and need for accommodations (Thorleifsson has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair) and tweeted that Thorleifsson has a “prominent, active Twitter account and is rich” and “the reason he confronted me publicly was to get a big payout”.
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 writing, but at the same time tweeted up a storm.
Can’t say I have much respect for it.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2023
While the exchange was going on, Thorleifsson said he received an email saying he was no longer employed.
On Tuesday night, Musk tweeted an apology to Thorleifsson, saying his misunderstanding was “based on things I was told that were untrue.”
I want to apologize to Halli for my misunderstanding of his situation. It was based on things I was told that were untrue or, in some cases, true but not meaningful.
He is considering staying on Twitter.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2023
Thorleifsson, who lives in Iceland, has nearly 160,000 Twitter followers (Musk has over 130 million). He joined Twitter in 2021, when the company, under previous management, acquired his startup Ueno.
He was praised in the Icelandic media for choosing to receive the purchase price in salary rather than a one-off payment. That’s because in this way he would pay higher taxes to Iceland to support its social services and safety net.
Thorleifsson tweeted to Musk that “The reason I asked you publicly is because you (or anyone else on Twitter) didn’t respond to my private messages.”
“You had every right to lay me off. But it would have been nice to let me know!” he added.
Thorleifsson’s next move: “I’m opening a restaurant in downtown Reykjavik very soon,” he tweeted. “It’s named after my mother.”
