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Musk vows to pay legal costs for users who get in trouble at work for their tweets

This illustration photo created on July 24 shows the Twitter bird logo in the background of the X account of Elon Musk.
Chris Delmas
/
AFP via Getty Images
This illustration photo created on July 24 shows the Twitter bird logo in the background of the X account of Elon Musk.

Elon Musk said X, formerly known as Twitter, will cover the legal costs of anyone who gets in trouble with their boss for their activity on his social media platform.

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

The tech billionaire further promised there was "no limit" on the amount the company would be willing to pay — despite plunging advertising revenue and a growing threat to X from Meta's newly unveiled Twitter-like platform, Threads.

The offer was lauded on the platform, receiving over 100,000 retweets and over 400,000 likes as of Sunday afternoon. But Musk, who has long used his account to provoke, joke and troll, has yet to provide details on how users can request assistance or what exactly will be considered unfair treatment.

A few hours later, Musk wrote on X that a proposed fight between him and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in the works and the proceeds will go to veterans — though specifics about the event or which charity would benefit have yet to be detailed. The two social media moguls began bluffing about a match over the summer after Musk received word that Zuckerberg would be launching Threads.

Whether or not Musk's fulfills his pledge to cover legal costs, it speaks to his long-held concerns over free speech and censorship. Meanwhile, during his leadership, the platform's owner has temporarily suspended several journalists who covered the company and banned an account that tracked the movements of his private jet using publicly available information.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Juliana Kim
Juliana Kim is a weekend reporter for Digital News, where she adds context to the news of the day and brings her enterprise skills to NPR's signature journalism.
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