Elon Musk took aim at Twitter staffers leaking internal information to the media, vowing that those who continue to do so will face legal action moving forward, a journalist reported Saturday.
The billionaire Twitter CEO made the threat in a companywide email, journalist Zoë Schiffer reported. Schiffer stopped short of posting the document itself, writing that “Twitter is doing everything it can to catch sources.”
According to a tweet thread posted by Shiffer, Musk wrote in the email that he was concerned about a “few people” at Twitter who “continue to act in a manner contrary to the company’s interests” and in violation of nondisclosure agreements.
“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,” Musk, 51, wrote in the email to staffers, according to the thread.
Musk is said to have added that while slip-ups can happen, “breaking your word by sending detailed info to the media” about the inner workings of the company “will receive the response it deserves.”
Schiffer said Musk wrapped his missive by asking workers to sign a document acknowledging the warning by 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Schiffer also shared a link to The Tech Worker Handbook, emphasizing that employees who leak still have rights. The Tech Worker Handbook is a website that provides resources to whistleblowers.
Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in late October. The Tesla tycoon and self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” initially offered to purchase the platform and take it private earlier this year, promising that free speech would be a top priority.
He has vowed to scale back content moderation — a move many fear will pave the way for hate speech and misinformation — and to welcome back accounts that have been booted from the website in recent years.
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