By Matthew Hoffman
New scandal about the Twitter boss! The 51-year-old mocked a disabled person on the short message service. Musk then had to backtrack, apologizing publicly.
What happened?
Haraldur Thorleifsson, a Twitter contributor based in Iceland, wrote on the network that access to his work computer had been blocked nine days ago. At that time, another 200 employees had been laid off. Thorleifsson in his tweet to Musk: “But the hiring manager can’t tell me if I’m still employed or not.”
A chat developed between the multi-billionaire and the Icelander, and finally the scandal: Elon Musk claimed that Thorleifsson had “done no real work and claimed as an excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing”.
Haraldur Thorleifsson then clarified that he suffers from muscular dystrophy – a disease that confined him to a wheelchair 20 years ago.
The father of two can type “an hour or two at a time,” which wasn’t a problem before Musk took over. At that time, as Senior Director, he was mainly active in an advisory capacity.
Due to the massive number of layoffs, Thorleifsson’s work has changed. “I am unable to do physical work – which in my case means typing or using a mouse – for long periods of time without my hands cramping.”
Musk, who not for the first time has slandered former employees online, later apologized. The “misunderstanding” was based on “things I was told that were untrue”. Halli, the Icelander’s nickname, is considering staying on Twitter.
Thorleifsson, on the other hand, posted that he wants to open a restaurant in Reykjavík.