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Musk publicly punishes Twitter engineers who call him out online

Musk publicly punishes Twitter engineers who call him out online
A woman checks her phone next to a banner showing the Twitter logo, in Istanbul, Turkey, 14 October 2022. EPA-EFE/SEDAT SUNA

Twitter owner Elon Musk, who has called himself a “free speech absolutist”, has resorted to firing company engineers who publicly criticise him on the social-media service.

In one case, Musk announced the firing in a tweet. In another, the former employee said he was fired after he openly rebuked Musk.

Engineer Eric Frohnhoefer, who worked on Twitter’s app for the Android mobile operating system, on Sunday reposted one of Musk’s tweets with a comment, saying that Musk’s understanding of a technical part of Twitter’s app was “wrong”. Musk replied and asked Frohnhoefer to elaborate, before writing, “Twitter is super slow on Android. What have you done to fix that?”

After attempting to explain his thinking in a number of tweets, Frohnhoefer was asked by another user why he hadn’t shared his feedback with his new boss privately. The engineer, who has worked at Twitter for more than eight years, replied, “maybe he should ask questions privately. Maybe use Slack or email”.

On Monday morning, Musk wrote that Frohnhoefer had been fired. Frohnhoefer retweeted that post, and included a saluting emoji that many employees used when they were laid off earlier this month. Twitter and Frohnhoefer didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on his status.

I have spent ~6yrs working on Twitter for Android and can say this is wrong. https://t.co/sh30ZxpD0N

— Eric Frohnhoefer @ 🏡 (@EricFrohnhoefer) November 13, 2022

Another engineer, Ben Leib, was also fired after calling out Musk. He retweeted the same technical post from Musk, writing, “As the former tech lead for timelines infrastructure at Twitter, I can confidently say that this man has no idea wtf he’s talking about.” Leib, who worked at Twitter for a decade, confirmed to Bloomberg that he was fired on Sunday.

Twitter has been thrown into chaos since Musk took over late last month. Many workers remain upset that Musk fired half of the company’s 7,000-plus employees, including most of the senior managers, within about a week of his $44-billion buyout.

The billionaire also rapidly changed the corporate culture. While it wasn’t previously routine for employees to challenge leadership publicly at Twitter, workers often spoke out on internal Slack channels and by email before Musk showed up, sometimes posting criticism or concerns to the entire company.

Musk’s changes have led to a lack of communication internally in terms of who is in charge and what the company’s priorities are, current and former staff say.

The moves have also led to concerns that San Francisco-based Twitter is vulnerable to product breakdowns or technical outages. On Monday, Twitter implemented another coding freeze, halting product updates to the app, and employees weren’t given a clear reason why.  BM/DM

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Comments - Please in order to comment.

  • Jane Crankshaw says:

    Musk seems to have finally lost the plot! This comes from allowing him to manipulate Tesla quarter earnings by declaring profit which was actually profit on Tesla’s purchase of Bitcoin… the value also manipulated by him ( and all done through tweets,)
    Too much power corrupts…absolute power corrupts absolutely! It’s such a pity because we were all so proud of him and his rise from relative obscurity on this tiny tip of Africa to becoming the richest man in the world! Wings are melting fast now though!

  • sl0m0 za says:

    ANy staff who publicly call out there own CEO SHOULD be fired. Musk is 100% correct. These millenials think they can act out and get away with it. Good one Elon !

    • Nina Nortje says:

      I agree with the core of your comment, but would add that a CEO should lead by example too.

      • Gustav Bertram says:

        “A healthy company culture encourages people to share bad news. A company that discusses its problems freely and openly can quickly solve them.” – Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things

        By his actions, Musk is instantly creating a culture toxic culture, one that will destroy the company in time if he does not do so himself first.

        Furthermore, a proponent free speech would also defend to the death someone’s right to state their opinion, even while disagreeing with them.

        How are you still finding Musks actions here admirable?

  • Rob Wilson says:

    It’s not new. Twenty years ago I was deployed to fix a large ailing IT department. I directed that the 6 section section heads prepare individual presentations to describe what his/her section did and how this related to adding value to the core business of the organisation. Only one could do so. That is why organisations have to come down a peg or two now and again before re-inventing themselves. Its Twitter’s turn.

  • Chris Taylor says:

    It is common courtesy and common sense to not attack your boss publicly. There needs to be a working relationship, and if an employee expresses contempt for the boss there is no working relationship and they need to go separate ways. There is nothing sinister about it.

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