Elon Musk Rarely Regrets Brutally Taunting Disabled Former Twitter Employee: ‘I Want To Apologize’

A day after publicly attacking a disabled former Twitter employee, Musk reversed course and rarely apologized.

The odd spectacle began when this employee, Haraldur “Halli” Thorleifsson, a well-known designer, became frustrated after being locked out of his work computer for nine days with no message from Twitter’s human resources department. Fearing he’d been laid off as part of the recent job cuts, he took to Twitter to directly ask his owner – Musk – to clarify his work status.

Musk happened to see the tweet and questioned Thorleifsson for some basic information. Finally, Thorleifsson said HR contacted him and finally said he had indeed been fired.

But shortly thereafter, in a public conversation with another person, Musk struck a cruel tone, criticizing Thorleifsson’s work and ridiculing his efforts at work. Musk was referring to Thorleifsson’s disability — he has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair — in a possible violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits employers from disclosing an employee’s disabilities.

“The reality is that this guy (who is independently wealthy) wasn’t doing any real work when Sorry claimed he had a disability that prevents him from typing while also tweeting up a storm,” Musk said wrote. “I can’t say I have a lot of respect for that.”

But late Tuesday, after intense public backlash and the possibility of a lawsuit over the potential ADA violation, Musk backtracked.

“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,” Musk said wrote.

Musk added that he spoke via video call to Thorleifsson, who lives in Iceland, and said he “is considering staying on Twitter.” Thorleifsson didn’t immediately comment on Musk’s apology or whether he was interested in working for him again on Twitter.

Thorleifsson sold his startup Uneno to Twitter in 2021 and joined Twitter as part of the deal. He is open about his disability and initially responded to Musk by describing the impact it had on him and how he still managed to work on Twitter.

In a thinly veiled critique of Musk, Thorleifsson also wrote: “You had every right to fire me. But it would have been nice to let me know!”

Then Thorleifsson got down to business and asked Musk about the financial considerations of a layoff. Would Musk, one of the richest people in the world, honor Thorleifsson’s contract or “try to avoid paying” – another dig at Musk, who has allegedly failed to pay office rent and promised laid-off employees the promised compensation.

“Let me know if you will pay what you owe me?” He called. “I think you can afford it?

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