Musk offers legal aid for users in trouble at work over X posts

Elon Musk on Saturday said his social media company X would provide monetary legal aid to users who face blowback from their bosses over posts on the platform.

Users, including many celebrities and others in the public eye, have occasionally found themselves in hot water with their employers over controversial things they have posted, liked, or retweeted on the platform, which was formerly known as Twitter.

"If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill," he wrote on the site.

"No limit. Please let us know."

Musk gave no details on how users could claim their money.

Since the tycoon bought the social media platform for $44 billion last October, its advertising business has collapsed, in part because of its looser approach to blocking hate speech, and the return of previously banned far-right accounts.

Musk has repeatedly cited a desire for free speech as motivating his changes, and lashed out at what he sees as the threat posed to free expression by changing cultural sensitivities.

According to nonprofit organization the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), hate speech has flourished at the platform.

X has disputed the findings and is suing the CCDH.

In December, Musk reinstated former US president Donald Trump's Twitter account, although Trump has yet to return to the platform.

The ex-president was banned from Twitter in early 2021 for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a group of his supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

X recently reinstated rapper and designer Kanye West around eight months after his account was suspended, according to media reports.

Last fall, West, who now goes professionally by Ye, posted an image that appeared to show a swastika interlaced with a Star of David, and Musk suspended the artist from the platform.

© 2023 AFP