Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, has announced that he will pay for the legal fees of any user of his social media platform X who is unfairly treated by their employer for posting or liking something on the site. Musk made the announcement on his own X account, where he has over 150 million followers.
“If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill. No limit. Please let us know,” Musk said in a post on X.
If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill.
Musk is yet to give any further updates on his plan but certainly, there are questions about the feasibility of his offer, how he will verify the claims and handle the potential legal complications.
Musk vowed to protect free speech and fight bots after buying Twitter. In a brief message on his own Twitter account at that time, Musk said that he was committed to preserving free speech on the platform, as well as tackling the issues of spam bots and verifying the identity of all human users.
He wrote, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it”.
Elon Musk later faced backlash from some users who feared that his emphasis on free speech would lead to no content moderation on the platform. Musk responded by saying that he was not in favour of any censorship that exceeded the legal requirements.
“By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people,” Musk clarified through a tweet later.
By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law.
I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.
If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.
Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.
Meanwhile, X has recently filed an appeal against an Indian court order that found it in violation of the federal government’s directives to take down certain content. X claims that the order could set a precedent for the government to block more content and impose more censorship on the platform.
