Twitter's new CEO, Elon Musk, has found himself in the midst of a host of controversies since he acquired the social media giant on November 4. Against this backdrop, Musk once again hit the headlines after he allegedly issued another ultimatum to Twitter employees wherein he threatened legal action against anyone who discloses confidential information to the press.
Voicing his strong displeasure over the information leaks, Musk has demanded that the employees sign a pledge, testifying that they have understood the directives and gave them until 5pm to respond.
'Leaking confidential information violates NDA... will receive the response it deserves'
As per a report published on NDTV, Musk wrote to employees, "As evidenced by the many detailed leaks of confidential Twitter information, a few people at our company continue to act in a manner contrary to the company's interests and in violation of their NDA."
The Tesla and SpaceX owner further said, "This will be said only once: If you clearly and deliberately violate the NDA that you signed when you joined, you accept liability to the full extent of the law & Twitter will immediately seek damages."
Taking a strict stance against leaks, Musk noted that while "occasional slip-ups" could be pardoned, but "sending detailed info to the media ... will receive the response it deserves."
Multiple lawsuits against Twitter
In the last few weeks, Twitter has been dragged to court multiple times with lawsuits over service conditions and termination of employment contracts. One such complaint even alleges that Elon Musk has illegally converted office space into bedrooms so that workers can sleep on site.
In a purported jibe at the slew of lawsuits against the firm, Musk wrote on his Twitter handle on Saturday, "Twitter is both a social media company and a crime scene."
Discrimination against female employees
Musk's threatening email comes three days after two former employees of Twitter, Carolina Bernal Strifling and Willow Wren Turkal, who were affected by the company's "mass layoff" filed a discrimination lawsuit against the world's richest man, claiming that the firing spree has disproportionately impacted the female employees. The lawsuit filed in a San Francisco federal court this week alleges that 57% of female employees were laid off, compared to less than half of men, despite Twitter employing more men overall before the layoffs.
The plaintiffs have highlighted in their petition that women in engineering roles have been the worst hit by Musk's discriminatory policies — 63% were laid off, compared to 48% of men. “The mass termination of employees at Twitter has impacted female employees to a much greater extent than male employees – and to a highly statistically significant degree,” Lawyer Liss-Riordan, representing the two female employees, wrote. “Moreover, Elon Musk has made a number of publicly discriminatory remarks about women, further confirming that the mass termination's greater impact on female employees resulted from discrimination.”
Mass layoffs
The job cutbacks continued throughout November as Musk fired engineers who questioned or criticized him and gave all remaining employees the choice to resign with severance or sign a form pledging “extremely hardcore” work and dedication to Twitter's new direction.
"It's very concerning that the richest man in the world thinks that he can walk all over employee rights and doesn't have to follow the law. We intend to hold him accountable," Liss-Riordan asserted.
Liss-Riordan is also leading a suit against the social media giant, which alleges that scores of employees are not receiving the severance and compensation promised to them prior to Musk's takeover.
