Musk Calls Out Satya Over Blizzard Thread on Charlie Kirk

The killing of Charlie Kirk, a high-profile conservative activist and also an ally of Donald Trump, at the University of Utah on Sept. 10, provoked reactions both offline and online, specially on X.

Of them, a user reacting to a post created by people at a Microsoft subsidiary unit caught billionaire Elon Musk’s attention.

One of the users on the platform posted: “Someone posted a mega-thread of Blizzard devs trashing Charlie Kirk…WoW,” referencing a thread allegedly created by developers at Activision Blizzard, a gaming subsidiary of Microsoft. Though the content and authenticity of the thread have not been verified, the post became a source for broader discussion about political discourse among tech employees.

Owner of X, Elon Musk, entered the conversation by directly tagging Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in response to the thread. Musk’s move pushed Activision Blizzard and Microsoft into the public debate, raising questions about employee behavior.

With the screenshots of the alleged thread being circulated online, Microsoft issued a statement claiming that these matters are grave and the company is reviewing each situation.  Taking on X, the statement added, “Comments celebrating violence against anyone are unacceptable and do not align with our values.” It is not clear if the comments were made by Microsoft or Activision Blizzard employees.

The online conversation was taken forward and several other incidents of public and private sector employees expressing views on contentious incidents were mentioned. Musk, who is usually quite active on the platform, targeted the tech professionals supporting the assassination. He reposted a post stating: “American Airlines pilots who were caught celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk have been removed from service by @AmericanAir.”

Investigation into the killing is still continuing and authorities are focused on the suspect’s motivations behind the assassination.