Shocking absolutely nobody, alleged freedom of speech lover and believer of all things freedom-related Elon Musk has fired one of his employees: airing it on Twitter, no less.
Employee Eric Frohnhoefer, who has worked for six years on Twitter for Android, saw the remorseless scythe swung firmly at him after criticizing the new overlord Elon Musk for misinformation. The app has been troubled for the last two weeks with new waves of trolling and issues, but when the man in charge can’t get get it right, he should be taken to ask.
Frohnhoefer was quick to call out Musk’s claim around why the app had apparently been running slowly, with him offering actual development insight into the supposed problem. Turns out, Musk has been telling lies. Or, making up techno mumbo-jumbo.
Musk quickly responded to this by openly firing the developer tweeting about it. Because that’s exactly how you boost team morale, post about people you’re firing as if it’s some funny little thing, and not someone’s livelihood. The South African billionaire cares little for the peasant team who actually do the hard things at his company.
Really, nothing is shocking about how Musk is handling his reign over Twitter. His fascination with freedom of speech ironically has resulted in significantly more censorship, but simultaneously more racism allowed on the platform.
Frohnhoefer confirmed his job loss in another tweet, with a photo confirming he’s been officially locked out of company materials. This is some of the most worrying stuff from Musk, he seems to be permanently on the precipice of another terrible decision. Musk’s first ideas for new features have gone down like lead balloons, with paid verification resulting in new waves of misinformation, his “freedom of speech” stance seeing advertisers boycott, and his general leadership feeling like a car-crash.
How long Musk has left in this position is uncertain, but it seems a matter of time before his position becomes untenable.