Elon Musk reportedly threatens to fire and sue Twitter employees who leak information to the press- Technology News, Firstpost

Mehul Reuben DasDec 12, 2022 17:42:05 IST

Elon Musk is getting a little fed up with the constant leaks from Twitter and has threatened to terminate and sue Twitter employees who leak information to the press. An email obtained by Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer warns employees that Twitter will “immediately seek damages” if they violate their non-disclosure agreements. 

Elon Musk is evidently not happy about Twitter employees sharing emails and memos with journalists after he took over. He was particularly not happy about the news of him turning office spaces into bedrooms at Twitter HQ, being leaked to the press.
Image Credit: AFP

According to Schiffer, Musk says employees will “get the response they deserve” if they send “detailed info to the media.” Musk is asking workers to sign a pledge indicating that they understand the policy, which they’re reportedly expected to return by the end of the day today.

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. 2/

— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) December 10, 2022

While most companies have their employees sign boilerplate NDAs that prevent them from revealing trade secrets to the press or other companies, Musk wants to update the NDAs that Twitter employee signs. 

Musk hasn’t been happy about the numerous leaked emails and memos that have found their way to the press since he took over. He particularly wasn’t very happy when authorities in San Francisco visited Twitter’s office to inspect the working conditions there, after reports came out that Musk had turned several rooms at the Twitter HQ into bedrooms so that employees working on critical and time-sensitive projects can spend most of their time at work.

Musk faced a similar issue with Tesla as well, when several key figures were leaking information that had very little to do with Tesla’s proprietary secrets, but the working conditions of Tesla’s factories, but were related to Musk and how he behaves with his staff. 

In order to deal with the situation back then, Musk and his team adopted a rather ingenious solution. Musk and his team would slightly tweak every email that they send out to many people, and would only change the spacing of the words between two words. Musk would randomly add a space between two words, before sending it to some one and then would compare the text with the leaked news online. Based on where he would find the extra spaces in the news that published his leaked memo, he would then terminate the employee who was at fault. However, unless the leak was egregious Tesla hardly went after any employee who was terminated for sharing secrets with the press.

As for the leaks at Twitter, Musk says occasional slip-ups are understandable “but breaking your word by sending detailed info to the media” with the intent to harm Twitter “will receive the response it deserves.” He also asked his employees to sign a pledge if they understood the directives and were given until 5 pm Saturday to respond.