From JC

The New York Sun ran an intriguing story yesterday headlined, “Elon Musk Pledges to Pay Legal Bills of Twitter Users Mistreated for Posting on the Site.”

The Sun’s article referred to a Saturday tweet (or is it “X” now?) by Elon Musk, where he promised to pay the legal bills of anyone mistreated by their employer on account of posting or liking something on Twitter, I mean X:

As you can see, Musk’s tweet garnered over 735,000 “likes” as of this morning. The response has been strong. Nobody yet knows what the rules or criteria are, and no one’s legal bills have been funded so far. But enthusiasm is running high.

What might unfair treatment look like? Here’s one recent example:

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According to the related article from Inside Higher Ed, Mark Tykocinski resigned as president of Thomas Jefferson University and as dean of the university’s medical school, after being outed for “liking” tweets critical of coronavirus vaccines, gender-affirmation surgery and college diversity, equity and inclusion offices.

Sounds like my kind of guy. I’d have made him king for life, but apparently the Board of Governors didn’t agree. If he were pressured into resigning, it seems to me that Mr. Tykocinski would be a terrific candidate for some legal assistance from Twitter, sorry, I mean X.

I have no idea what Musk’s goals are, since he didn’t say. But first, even if it was inadvertent, it was a masterful marketing strategy. Even the lack of details is helping as tens of thousands speculate what it could mean. Politico even wrote a hopeful article wondering whether Musk’s offer could drive Twitter out of business. Second, the announcement might make some employers think twice about disciplining employees over their social media activity. And third, it could encourage more people to be bolder in their posts, increasing the amount and interest level of the content.

Who knows? But it’s interesting.