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"Deep irony" in Musk firing of Twitter critics

Zoë Schiffer, the managing editor of Platformer, says Elon Musk’s claim that he is a champion of free speech is undermined by his firing of employees who have criticised the new Twitter owner.

“They’re going through [internal company messaging platform] Slack and making lists of people who’ve been critical of Elon Musk, who’ve emoji reacted to people who have been critical and then they’re terminating them overnight," Schiffer told WNYC Studios' 'On the Media'.

“Elon Musk said that he bought Twitter he is a free speech absolutist and he thinks that there needs to be a place where everyone on the internet can speak as freely as possible.

"So there is deep irony in the fact that we are seeing him crack down so harshly on his own employees who are critiquing him.

“And I think, you know, it’s easy to say ‘Well, you can’t just criticise your boss online - of course there are consequences.’ But you have to understand that under [company founder and former CEO] Jack Dorsey, Twitter had a culture where it really encouraged people to do exactly that.

"It wanted employees at every level of the company to push back at company executives.”