Elon Musk mocks disabled Twitter employees in front of his 130 million followers. He even said that the employee did not have any contribution on social media with the blue bird icon.
The employee in question is named Haraldur Thorleifsson. He has muscular dystrophy and is wheelchair dependent.
Last Monday (6/3/2023), Thorleifsson tweeted Elon Musk asking for clarity on his employment status. Because he has lost access to his work computer a few days ago, but Twitter's HRD has not confirmed his status.
That sparked a series of tweets between Musk and Thorleifsson. The world's richest man asked a man living in Iceland about his role in the company.
Thorleifsson provided his to-do list in response to Musk's questions. However, the answer did not make Musk believe it.
Musk still doubts several points by asking Thorleifson to record his work. "Photo or it didn't happen," he tweeted.
In fact, reported by CNN Indonesia, Thorleifsson, who founded a digital branding company acquired by Twitter in 2021, has been recognized by the United Nations and the president of Iceland for spearheading a charitable effort to build 1,000 wheelchair ramps around Reykjavik to increase the city's accessibility.
In a separate tweet, the billionaire said Thorleifsson doesn't do real work. That's what he claimed was the reason Thorleifson had a disability that prevented him from typing and therefore deserved to be fired.
Receiving that answer, Thorleifsson clarified in a tweet by stating that she suffers from muscular dystrophy, a degenerative disease that confined her to a wheelchair more than 20 years ago.
"I certainly can't do manual work (which in this case means typing or using a mouse) for a long time without my hands starting to cramp. But I can write for an hour or two at a time. This wasn't a problem in Twitter 1.0 as I was the director seniors and my job is mostly to help the team move forward, giving them strategic and tactical advice," he said.
To note, this is not the first time Musk has had problems with Twitter employees. Previously, one of the richest people in the world also openly mocked employees on Twitter and feuded on the platform with former Twitter executives.
He has also fired employees who criticized him. In one case, he even publicly cited a former employee's tweets about him saying they were the result of "the tragic case of Tourette's adult assault."