Twitter boss Elon Musk has apologized for an exchange with an employee on the platform.
It came after worker Halli Thorleifsson tweeted Mr Musk, saying: “Your hiring manager cannot confirm whether I am employed or not.”
Mr Musk responded by asking, “What work did you do?”
After a series of questions and answers, Mr Thorleifsson said he had received an email confirming he had been fired.
Mr Musk followed that Twitter conversation on Tuesday with a tweet describing Mr Thorleifsson as “the worst” before deleting it.
But in an apparent change of heart, Mr Musk took to the platform a few hours later to apologize – and appeared to be giving Mr Thorleifsson his job back.
“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.”
“He’s considering staying on Twitter,” he added.
On Monday, Mr Thorleifsson exclusively told the BBC that he could not get an answer from Twitter’s human resources department as to whether or not he had been sacked.
“My theory is that they made a mistake and are now looking for whatever they can find to make this a good cause dismissal to avoid having to fulfill their contractual obligations,” he said.
Mr Thorleifsson, who sold his creative agency Ueno to Twitter in 2021, declined to say how much he was paid for the venture. However, there is speculation that Twitter would have to pay him a sizable sum upon his departure from the company.
Mr Thorleifsson suffers from muscular dystrophy and has been campaigning for better wheelchair access in Iceland.
According to local reports, when he sold his company to Twitter, he deliberately structured the deal to pay a hefty tax rate to the Icelandic government.
Last year he was voted Person of the Year in Iceland by four media outlets.
Some of Mr Thorleifsson’s former colleagues could not understand why he was singled out for such public criticism.
Photographer Daniel Houghton tweeted: “As someone who has worked directly with Halli Thorleifsson during a turning point, this is very disappointing to see. Not only is his work ethic next level, his talent and humility are world class.”
Mr Musk replied: “Based on your comment I just had a video call with Halli to find out what is real and what I was told. It’s a long story. Talking to people is better than communicating via tweets.”
After apologizing, Mr Musk said Mr Thorleifsson was considering returning to Twitter. The BBC has not spoken to Mr Thorleifsson since Mr Musk apologized.
Mr Thorleifsson had previously told the BBC the situation was “strange” and “extremely stressful”.
The BBC reached out to Twitter for further comment, but the company did not immediately respond.
James Clayton is the BBC’s North American technology reporter based in San Francisco. Follow him on Twitter @jamesclayton5.
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