Elon Musk's X Leaves Up Slavery Post, Pays Ghanian Ex-Employees After Legal Dispute

Elon Musk-owned social media site, X, left up a viral post with content promoting the enslavement of Black people. The post has garnered over a whopping 2 million views since it was posted.

A post shared by Twitter user The Hellenist (@The_Hellenist), who has verified account status, includes a screenshot from the 1939 film "Gone With The Wind". The image depicts a scene where Black actress Hattie McDaniel portrays Mammy, an enslaved woman, assisting the white protagonist Scarlett O'Hara, portrayed by Vivien Leigh.

The X post contained text promoting the enslavement of Black people and criticising their freedom. The account owner later referenced Aristotle in a bid to justify enslavement.

"Nature would like to distinguish between the bodies of freemen and slaves, making the one strong for servile labor, the other upright, and although useless for such services, useful for political life in the arts both of war and peace," @The_Hellenist wrote in a follow-up post.

In response to an X user who wrote, "I've worked with many blacks. You're wrong. They are lazy and late," The Hellenist posted a photo of a whip.

On February 15, the same user posted it is "illegal immigrants should be enslaved upon capture" and shared a photo of Black people, including a child.

The Hellenist, who has over 17,000 followers, has been sharing a lot of hateful and controversial posts on X, including a pinned post that claims "Christ is dead, Zeus is king". Interestingly, none of the abovementioned posts, which were shared recently, have been hit with any labels or enforcement actions (at the time of writing).

Likewise, another post claiming white women are prettier than black women and therefore masters by nature has been up since February 17. This doesn't come as a surprise given that X's (formerly Twitter) content moderation experts were laid off under Musk's leadership.

Balancing free speech and responsibility

Notably, the platform was criticised by the Australian eSafety Commissioner for making "deep cuts to safety and public policy personnel". As if that weren't enough, the once iconic site has been catching flak lately for selling verification badges to US enemies.

On top of that, several top brands paused their advertising campaigns on the platform after learning their content was being posted near hateful accounts. It is also worth noting that X offers a revenue-sharing model for creators, encouraging them to create content with high engagement.

However, X CEO Linda Yaccarino has emphasised the platform's commitment to striking a perfect balance between free speech and addressing hate speech, as mandated by relevant regulations. Meanwhile, Musk has come under fire for amplifying antisemitic content and conspiracy theories on the platform.

While the fight for responsible social media practices persists, a glimmer of hope emerged for sacked employees in Ghana.

Ghana Twitter staff see payday

Employees who were working at the Africa office located in Accra, Ghana, and were laid off from Twitter in its transition to X, have finally received severance pay over a year after their dismissal. Frustrated by the wait for severance, some of these employees were reportedly considering legal options against X.

Following Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the social media platform underwent workforce reductions resulting in over 6,000 employee departures. In April 2023, Musk reported that X had 1,500 employees, a major drop from nearly 8,000 employees at the time of his acquisition.

The employees' legal representatives, Agency Seven Seven, confirmed the successful negotiation of a settlement package including repatriation expenses for foreign staff.

"They are very pleased to finally be able to get their due, put this behind them and look to the future," Carla Olympio from Agency Seven Seven told the BBC.

Agency Seven Seven challenged the legality of their client's dismissal from X by invoking legal protections under Ghana's Labour Act of 2023, which mandates employers ''to file a notice with the Chief Labour Officer of Ghana and then engage in settlement negotiations with affected staff before implementing a redundancy exercise''.

Ghana law requires redundancy pay and a 3-month notice but fired Twitter Ghana workers say they got less than a month in November 2022.