Elon Musk has a lot of money. He also owns a couple of companies that have a lot of money. One of those companies, X, is using some of its money to fund yet another lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed by Chloe Happe against her former employer Block — yes, the Block that was founded by Jack Dorsey, the person who founded X back when it was Twitter. The tech world is just one interconnected web not unlike The Chart in The L Word.
In the complaint, Happe accused Block of firing her for making two posts on X in her personal time: One in which she purported to be a citizen of Kurdistan and referenced refugees fleeing Gaza in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attacks, and another in which she used ableist language and slurs against trans people in reference to gender neutral restrooms. Both were made from pseudonymous accounts.
The lawsuit alleges that she was unlawfully terminated in violation of Block’s own employee speech policy and “several constitutionally protected freedoms, including the freedom of thought, the freedom of belief, the freedom of speech, and the freedom of expressive association” because neither post mentioned Block, she posted both of them during her personal time, and she “voluntarily deleted” both posts within days of posting them.
According to the lawsuit, human resources at Block said it received reports about Happe’s posts. When Block obtained the deleted posts and showed them to Happe, she denied making them and “claimed an abusive ex-boyfriend must have impersonated her online.” A few days later, Block fired Happe. She is claiming that Block terminated her without severance solely because she “expressed her political views, opinions, or beliefs in the form of satire” that Block disagreed with.
“X is funding a lawsuit filed today by Chloe Happe against her former employer, Block,” X’s account posted on X. “Block fired Chloe because of the political opinions she expressed on X. Chloe had two pseudonymous accounts on X, @bronzeageshawty and the now-deprecated @samsarashawty. She did not reference Block or her own identity on either account before Block fired her. But because some of the opinions she expressed in her X accounts did not conform to the prevailing political orthodoxy, Block fired her, in violation of the law. X is supporting her suit to vindicate her rights.”
Happe wants her job back and to be compensated for loss of pay. Block has not released a public statement about the lawsuit and did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Mashable.
