Elon Musk threatened legal action against a Twitter employee who he said was the source of a Platformer article alleging that Musk’s tweets had been boosted.
According to engineers cited by Platformer, Musk requested 80 Twitter engineers to come up with strategies to promote his tweets after President Joe Biden’s Super Bowl tweet generated more engagement than his own.
Musk was questioned on Twitter on Friday over the validity of the Platformer claim.
Musk retorted, “The ‘source’ of the bogus Platformer article is a disgruntled employee who had been on paid time off for months, had already accepted a job at Google and felt the need to poison the well on the way out. Twitter will be taking legal action against him.”
He did not give the identity of the employee against whom he claimed Twitter was filing a lawsuit.
Business Insider reported that Platformer journalist Casey Newton said “Elon’s tweet is completely false. We stand by our reporting.”
According to tweets from Platformer’s Zo Schiffer, Musk issued an email to the Twitter workforce in December that threatened legal action against staff members who disclosed proprietary information to the media and required them to sign a statement confirming their understanding.
The CEO claimed Friday that numerous influential media outlets had falsely claimed that his tweets had been boosted above average levels.
He claimed that an analysis of his tweets from the previous six months revealed the reports to be untrue.
According to Musk, who has 129 million Twitter followers, “We did have a bug that briefly caused replies to have the same prominence as primary Tweets, but that has now been fixed.”
Musk has dismissed several employees for criticizing him since he took over Twitter in October and has laid off thousands of staff.
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