The Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland has taken it upon himself to weigh in on layoffs at Twitter, recently published by Tesla’s Elon Musk.
“My thoughts are with the people who are receiving bad news today, this is a hard day for them,” said Leo Varadkar, a former Irish prime minister (taoiseach) and current deputy prime minister (tánaiste), as well as leader of the country’s “progressive centrist” Fine Gael party.
“While some companies in tech have had to lay off staff recently, the number of vacancies in the sector still outweighs the number of people who are looking for employment. There is hope,” he added in a message posted on Twitter itself.
In a subsequent tweet, the politician added that the Irish government was “keeping a close eye on the situation and is here to help with advice on welfare entitlements, job search and education opportunities.”
“Just ask,” he implored, presumably addressing any Irish employees of the America-based tech corporation.
That a senior Irish politician would take the time to weigh in on the fate of the mostly foreign employees of a Big Tech company based in San Francisco, at a time when Ireland is facing a cost of living crisis, energy crisis, and migrant crisis, may be evidence of what some see as the left-liberal establishment’s obsession with what is said and what can be said on Twitter, long a playground for leftist politics and partisan journalism.
Indeed, the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, complained that South Africa-born Musk buying Twitter was a “form of dictatorship” before the purchase even went through, railing against “concentrated ownership” of the digital public square — although he had never previously voiced concern about social media’s outsized influence over the public discourse when it was censoring conservative and dissident commentators and public figures.
Musk, for his part, indicated a return to free speech would be on the cards with Twitter under his control, but is yet to deliver much in the way of change — endorsing the current “content moderation” regime and leaving the likes of Donald Trump permanently banned, at least for now.
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