{"id":219130,"date":"2024-04-01T15:56:15","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T15:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/01\/x-backs-free-speech-lawsuit-against-block\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:19:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:19:32","slug":"x-backs-free-speech-lawsuit-against-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/01\/x-backs-free-speech-lawsuit-against-block\/","title":{"rendered":"X backs free speech lawsuit against Block"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/GettyImages-1242661995-e1711985318574.jpg?w=2048\" \/><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"articleContent\">\n<p>Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are about to face off once again.<\/p>\n<div class=\"paywall\">\n<p>Twitter\/X has announced it will fund a lawsuit against <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/company\/square\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\">Block<\/a>, founded by Dorsey, over a worker who alleges she was fired because of posts she made on the social media outlet.<\/p>\n<p>Chloe Happe says she was fired for making posts on pseudonymous Twitter\/X accounts. In one, she pretended to be a citizen of Kurdistan and referenced refugees fleeing Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attacks. In another, she used slurs against trans people in reference to gender neutral restrooms.<\/p>\n<p>Happe says her termination was a violation of Block\u2019s policy on employee free speech.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBlock\u2019s own policies did not prohibit, and expressly allowed its employees to engage in speech like the Posts that Block referenced as grounds for terminating Happe,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/24524711-chloe-happe-v-block\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\">the lawsuit reads<\/a>. \u201cHappe\u2019s Posts were not on Slack, nor were they directed at any employee of Block.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Happe said she \u201cvoluntarily deleted\u201d the posts within days of putting them online.<\/p>\n<p>Twitter\/X, in a statement, said \u201cBlock fired Chloe because of the political opinions she expressed on X. Chloe \u2026 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.\u00a0 X is supporting her suit to vindicate her rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">X is funding a lawsuit filed today by Chloe Happe against her former employer, Block.<\/p>\n<p>Block fired Chloe because of the political opinions she expressed on X. Chloe had two pseudonymous accounts on X, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bronzeageshawty?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\">@bronzeageshawty<\/a> and the now-deprecated <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/samsarashawty?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\">@samsarashawty<\/a>.  She did not reference\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 News (@XNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/XNews\/status\/1773821491626295487?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\">March 29, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <!-- --><\/p>\n<p>Block did not respond to <em>Fortune<\/em>\u2019s request for comment on the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit claims Block\u2019s HR Department was made aware of the posts and showed them to Happe, who denied making them and blamed \u201can abusive ex-boyfriend\u00a0 [who] must have impersonated her online\u201d as she was afraid of getting in trouble. Block allegedly said her denial factored into the decision to terminate her employment three weeks later, the suit says.<\/p>\n<p>Happe is hoping to get her job back as well as to be compensated for lost pay.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc-f923d9ed-0 dNwVje article\" data-cy=\"subscriptionPlea\"><span data-sheets-value=\"{\" to=\"\" data=\"\" our=\"\" daily=\"\" newsletter=\"\" about=\"\" the=\"\" business=\"\" of=\"\" tech.=\"\" sign=\"\" up=\"\" for=\"\" data-sheets-userformat=\"{\">Subscribe to Data Sheet, our daily newsletter about the business of tech. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fortune.com\/newsletters\/data-sheet?&amp;itm_source=fortune&amp;itm_medium=article_tout&amp;itm_campaign=data_sheet\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"sc-c908bf88-0 iyWINF\">Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2024\/04\/01\/elon-musk-funding-lawsuit-against-jack-dorsey-block-freedom-speech\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are about to face off once again. Twitter\/X has announced it will fund a lawsuit against Block, founded by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219130"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332165,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219130\/revisions\/332165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}