Elon Musk Although he defines himself as a good libertarian, the freedom he professes does not seem to extend to criticism of his little person. This inability to receive criticism has been particularly palpable since the takeover of Twitter and has resulted in particular in the brutal dismissal of Twitter employees who expressed their dissatisfaction or in the suspension of the accounts of journalists who are a little too critical of Musk.
This authoritarian drift in fact largely predates Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Thus, we have just learned that Tesla has been defeated in court for the “wrongful” dismissal of two of its former employees. The latter had been fired from Tesla last June after making critical remarks about the fact that Musk prohibited telework at Tesla, including in a context of confinement. Lawyers for the two suspects have argued that the firings are actually Musk’s retaliation against workers who simply talked about their working conditions, which of course would violate federal labor laws in the United States.
It should also be noted that in addition to these two complaints, eight other employees have also filed an appeal with the NLRB (National Labor Relations Commission), arguing that he was wrongfully terminated for writing a letter calling for much stricter “zero tolerance policies” following allegations of sexual harassment (some alleging targeting Musk himself). Hundreds of Tesla employees have also signed an open letter to tackle Musk’s erratic proposals on Twitter.