Musk says X to fund legal bills if users ‘unfairly treated’ over posts

The tech billionaire says platform will fund the legal bills of users treated unfairly by employers for posts on the site.

Elon Musk
Musk gave no details on how users could claim money for their legal fees [File: Mike Blake/Reuters]

Elon Musk has said his X social media platform will pay the legal bills of people who have been treated unfairly by employers because of posting or liking something on the site 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,” Musk said in a post on X on Saturday, adding that there will be no limits to funding the bills.

“And we won’t just sue, it will be extremely loud and we will go after the boards of directors of the companies too,” Musk said later in response to a post about nothing changing behaviour in the US faster than a threat of legal action.

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

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 reposted on the platform.

Late last month, the tech billionaire said that monthly users of X reached a “new high” and shared a graph that showed the latest count as over 540 million.

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The figures came as the company is going through organisational changes and is looking to boost falling advertising revenue.

After 17 years with an iconic blue bird logo billionaire Musk renamed Twitter to X and unveiled a new logo in July, marking a focus on building an “everything app”. 

Musk earlier in July had said that the platform’s cash flow remains negative because of a nearly 50 percent drop in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load.

An upturn in advertising revenue that had been expected in June failed to materialise.

Lack of moderation of hate speech

Since the tycoon bought the social media platform for $44bn last October, its advertising business has collapsed, in part because of its reported lack of moderation of 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 organisation 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 Capitol Building 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 over an antisemitic post, according to media reports.

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Source: News Agencies

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