Tesla boss Elon Musk has commented on a tweet that purportedly shows a secret recording of a Twitter executive talking about why the microblogging website is not profitable and internal resistance against Mr Musk's buyout bid.
"He (Mr Musk) has Asperger's...So, he's special...I'm like, you're (Mr Musk) special needs- you're literally special needs...So, I can't even take what you're (Mr Musk) saying seriously," said the Twitter executive, who American far-right activist group Project Veritas identified as Twitter Lead Client Partner Alex Martinez.
The video was tweeted by Benny Johnson, who describes himself as "Godfather of the Conservative Internet" with millions of followers across his social media accounts. Mr Johnson tagged the Tesla boss in the video tweet for his comment.
Mr Musk responded, "Twitter exec trashing free speech and mocking people with Asperger's..."
The Twitter employee in the video said the company isn't profitable because of their woke ideology and the company tends to put the "correct" views in front of people.
Mr Martinez in the video can also be seen criticising Mr Musk's views on free speech on the platform, saying "the rest of us who have been here believe in something that's good for the planet and not just to give people free speech".
"People don't know how to make a rational decision if you don't put out -- correct things that are supposed to be out in the public, right?" he said.
The latest video comes a day after a man, described as a senior engineer with Twitter, said the company does not believe in free speech and people working at the company "hated" Mr Musk's $44 billion bid to buy the company.
The Tesla CEO has said the Twitter deal won't proceed unless he gets proof of the number of spam accounts plaguing the platform, adding more uncertainty to his roller-coaster pursuit of the social media giant.
This latest twist sparked speculation over whether the world's richest person was trying to shrink the price tag or even back away from the deal.
Mr Musk on Tuesday pushed for more information, writing to his almost 94 million followers on the social network: "Yesterday, Twitter's CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does."
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has said the platform suspends more than a half-million seemingly bogus accounts daily, usually before they are even seen, and locks millions more weekly that fail checks to make sure they are controlled by humans and not by software.
