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Elon Musk Dragged For Inadvertent Self-Own After Admitting Communicating Via Twitter Isn't Helpful

The Twitter CEO made the admission after mockingly responding to a worker's tweet wondering if he'd been laid off.

Elon Musk
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Twitter CEO Elon Musk should have re-read his response to a concerned employee who was unsure about his employment status and resorted to contacting Musk directly on the very platform he acquired for $44 billion.

Musk's reply reprimanding the employee wound up being an inadvertent self-own that was a condemnatory admission about Twitter.

Musk was subsequently mocked for arguing that verbally interacting with people was a far better communicative option than using Twitter.

The employee that questioned his employment status after being locked out of his work computer without warning was Haraldur Thorleifsson–a 45-year-old disabled entrepreneur who lives in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik with a wife and two kids.

When Halli futilely reached out to the human resources department through the appropriate channels and didn't hear back, he decided to go directly to the source and tweet at Musk to ask if he was laid off.

The last resort tactic prompted the CEO to mockingly reply, "What work have you been doing?"

Halli, who suffers from muscular dystrophy–a disease that weakens the muscles over time–responded by saying he saved Twitter $500,000 on a software-as-a-service contract and led prioritization of design projects.

After Halli told Musk the head of HR contacted him and told him he was fired, Musk continued to harp on him and made an ableist remark, saying that Halli:

“...did no actual work, claimed as his excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing, yet was simultaneously tweeting up a storm.”

After some continued back-and-forth in the thread, a Twitter user who closely worked with Halli confirmed that his job performance and work ethic were “next level."

Musk then said he video-called Halli "to figure out what’s real vs what I was told.”

He then proffered:

"Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet."



People thought the last part of the insufferable Twitter boss' statement was a hilarious self-own.

An hour later, Musk backed down and apologized to Halli and chalked it up to a "misunderstanding."

He also gave a positive update on Halli's employment status.

"I would like to apologize to Halli for my misunderstanding of his situation."
"It was based on things I was told that were untrue or, in some cases, true, but not meaningful. He is considering remaining at Twitter.'




However, people still couldn't get past Musk's suggestion to adopt a solution he apparently believed was more efficient than tweeting.













Users continued criticizing the CEO's MO of handling of the situation.







Musk laid off thousands of Twitter employees since his takeover in October as a way to retain profitability for the platform.

The staff count was reduced to 2,000 from roughly 7,500 in October as part of his cost-cutting strategy, according to The New York Times.