Elon Musk is sorry.
The billionaire tycoon has apologized for mocking a dismissed Twitter employee who suffers from muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair.
Musk accused Haraldur Thorleifsson of using his disability as an “excuse” for “not taking an actual job” after an Icelandic software engineer complained he had not heard of his job status for nine days.
“I’d like to apologize to Hallie for my misunderstanding of his situation,” Musk tweeted on Tuesday to his 130 million followers, referring to Thorleifsson by his nickname.
“It was based on things I was told that were untrue or, in some cases, true, but didn’t matter.”
The Twitter boss also revealed that he spoke with Thorleifsson in a video call about a possible return to the beleaguered social media platform.
“Considering staying on Twitter,” Musk tweeted, adding that “it’s better to talk to people than communicate via tweet.”
The Post asked for comment from Thorleifsson and Musk.
![Elon Musk](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007849003-1.jpg?w=1024)
Thorleifsson, 45, was one of several high-profile people apparently laid off as part of Twitter’s latest round of job cuts. He tweeted on Musk on Monday after logging into his computer to do some work – only to be banned along with 200 others.
“Dear @ElonMusk, 9 days ago my work computer was shut down, as were about 200 other Twitter employees. However, your head of HR cannot confirm whether I am an employee or not. You have not replied to my e-mails. Maybe if enough people retweet the tweet, you’ll reply to me here?” Thorleifsson wrote on Twitter.
“What job did you do?” Musk replied.
![Thorleifsson, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, learned he was fired from Twitter more than a week after the company blocked him from accessing its computer system.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007829832.jpg?w=942)
Thorleifsson responded with a list of achievements during his tenure on Twitter.
His personal website states that he “led the innovation team” that “led” the Twitter Communities project and helped develop the edit button on the platform.
But Musk was skeptical. At one point, he responded with a pair of laughing emoticons, insisting he post “pictures or it didn’t happen.”
Thorleifsson fired back, noting that the company had “locked in [his] computer.”
Musk finally responded with a scene from the 1999 comedy The Office Space in which two outside consultants ask an soon-to-be laid-off employee, “What would you do here?”
“Can you say you’re a social person?” Musk wrote on Twitter.
![Thorleifsson.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007829834.jpg?w=1024)
Thorleifsson noted during an exchange with Musk that Twitter’s Human Resources department contacted him and informed him that he was no longer employed by the San Francisco-based company.
Musk then tweeted that Thorleifsson was “not doing any work claiming to have a disability that prevents him from typing while tweeting a storm.”
Musk’s criticism of Thorleifsson drew backlash from Twitter users, who tend to sympathize with the tech mogul that acquired Twitter for $44 billion last October.
Esther Crawford, a Twitter executive who was famously sleeping on the office floor during Musk’s early management of the company, tweeted: “Cruelty is the worst.” Crawford was also jailed in the last purge.
When a Twitter user claimed to have worked with Thorleifsson and vouched for his “next level” work ethic, Musk responded that he had a video call with him “to find out what’s real and what I’ve been told.”
![Twitter](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007849007.jpg?w=1024)
Thorleifsson is a well-known tech entrepreneur. He joined Twitter in 2021, when the company, under its previous management, acquired his startup Ueno.
He was hailed in the Icelandic media for insisting on a salary payment as part of the Twitter takeover.
Rather than opting for payment in shares or other financial instruments, which would have been classified as capital gains and thus taxed at a lower rate, Thorleifsson opted to accept the proceeds as ordinary remuneration in order to pay the higher rate of tax.