PR firm sues Twitter for not paying bills after Elon Musk's takeover

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Twitter's former PR firm has sued the company for non-payment of bills ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022. According to the lawsuit, the contract ended on November 16 and the bills have been overdue since then.

New Delhi,UPDATED: May 28, 2023 17:41 IST

Twitter's former PR firm is suing the micro-blogging platform over non-payment of bills, reports suggest. This is not the first time that the Elon Musk-led company had found itself in the middle of a lawsuit. Just a couple of days back, ex-Twitter employees had also gathered and filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk over breaking federal and labour laws.

Musk bought Twitter in a highly-publicised deal in October 2022. The buyout, worth USD 44 billion, had made headlines for months. Shortly after assuming control of Twitter, Elon Musk introduced a number of changes including firing its then CEO, Parag Agrawal along with some other top executives. As of today, Twitter doesn't have a communications department and all emails sent to its press ID get a 'poop emoji' as a reply.

PR firm sues Twitter

According to a Reuters report, PR firm Joele Frank that was previously hired by Twitter, has sued the social media platform for not paying its bills since Elon Musk took over the company. The firm says that Twitter owes them a total of USD 830,498, which includes six unpaid bills, and 'costs for a subpoena in Twitter's lawsuit to force Musk to complete the buyout after he tried to back out'.

The PR firm, as per the report, further said that Twitter had terminated its contract on November 16. However, the company hasn't paid its bills yet and doesn't even communicate about the payment apart from an 'automated pledge that says that the payment will get started processing right away'.

Ex-Twitter employees file lawsuit against Musk

On a related note, six former Twitter employees filed a lawsuit against the entrepreneur and accused him of breaking federal and labour laws knowingly. Based on the lawsuit, San Francisco officials also said that they are investigating the matter. The lawsuit stated that one of the employees, named Joseph Killian, was 'forced to resign' from Twitter after he was 'repeatedly and specifically directed to violate California's building codes' while building Musk's 'Twitter Hotel rooms'. Killian served as Twitter's global head of construction design.

The rooms were ordered by Musk as the Twitter Boss wanted them made for people who would be working through the night. The 'Hotel Rooms' were renamed as 'Sleeping Rooms' in order to avoid attention.

Further, the lawsuit alleged that Musk asked for locks to be installed in these rooms that 'won't open automatically during an emergency'. These locks could prove to be fatal if an employee was in the room at the time of an emergency.

The lawsuit also argued that Musk denied paying rent for Twitter offices and said he would only do so 'over his dead body'.

"Elon doesn't pay rent, one member of the transition team told Hawkins. Another member of the transition team put it more bluntly to Killian: Elon told me he would only pay rent over his dead body," the lawsuit stated.

Not only this, Twitter also allegedly obtained services from brokers and vendors and fired them when they asked to get paid.

Published By:

Divyanshi Sharma

Published On:

May 28, 2023

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