Elon Musk's company SpaceX has reportedly fired several employees who drafted a letter criticising him.
At least five SpaceX employees have been sacked after circulating a letter which criticised Musk and called on company executives to create a more inclusive culture, a new report by The New York Times claims.
Musk has described himself as a champion of free speech, with the principle intended to be a pillar of his much talked about takeover of Twitter.
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However, he may have been caught in a moment of hypocrisy as it seem as if the company is all for free speech as long as it isn't used to critique the boss.
The letter was reportedly shared with 2,600 employees and slated Musk's recent behaviours as a 'distraction' and an 'embarrassment' to the company.
The letter was addressed to SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell and called on company bosses to 'hold all leadership equally accountable'.
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It had three main demands, calling on company leadership to first 'swiftly and explicitly separate itself from Elon's personal brand'.
The letter then made the call for all parts of SpaceX leadership to be held 'equally accountable' for their actions.
Finally, the now former SpaceX employees said they wanted leadership to 'define and uniformly respond to all forms of unacceptable behaviour'.
The staff known to have had a part in writing and circulating the letter were fired for making SpaceX staff feel 'uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied', according to an email from Shotwell seen by the New York Times.
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The company president said 'the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views'.
Shotwell has said SpaceX had a 'zero tolerance policy' against employee harassment.
Free speech is supposedly very important to Musk, who recently said a Twitter under his control would allow 'pretty outrageous things' as long as content posted on the social media site wasn't deemed to be illegal.
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The current richest man in the world, Musk recently agreed a $44 billion package to buy social media giant Twitter.
Since then the deal has been thrown into jeopardy as comments from Musk and various hitches in getting a deal over the line have appeared.
The Tesla CEO made comments about the site having too many fake accounts, though that caused clashes with Twitter leadership as the results of their studies into the problem didn't align.
Musk is also facing allegations that he 'exposed himself and propositioned' a SpaceX flight attendant who was then paid $250,000 to settle the case, according to Insider.
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UNILAD has contacted SpaceX for comment.
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Topics: Elon Musk, SpaceX, Technology