Days after his firing by tech giant Apple following an internal employee petition calling for his removal, Antonio García Martínez has released a statement heavily criticizing the company. According to Martínez, “Apple has issued a statement that clearly implies there was some negative behavior by me during my time at Apple. That is defamatory and categorically false.”
Breitbart News recently reported that Apple fired a newly hired employee, Antonio García Martínez, after other company employees began to circulate a petition calling for an investigation into his hiring.
Martínez previously worked as a Facebook product manager on the ad targeting team and has previously authored a controversial book about Silicon Valley that seems to be the main point of contention with many Apple employees.
Martínez has been accused of expressing misogynistic views in his book, an excerpt of which can be read below:
like imagine thinking hiring this guy was a savvy move pic.twitter.com/1lblsJtSo0
— Karl Bode (@KarlBode) May 12, 2021
According to journalist Matt Taibbi, Apple knew about the book and asked Martínez numerous questions about it during the interview process. Taibbi also claims that Apple recruited Martínez for the position he was ultimately hired for. According to Taibbi, the passage in question was taken completely out of context by Apple’s cancel culture brigade.
Apple employees wrote in the petition calling for the removal of Martínez: “We are deeply concerned about the recent hiring of Antonio García Martínez. His misogynistic statements in his autobiography — such as ‘Most women in the Bay Area are soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit’ (further quoted below this letter) — directly oppose Apple’s commitment to Inclusion & Diversity.”
The petition was signed by more than 2,000 employees before it was published by the Verge.
Now, Martínez has released an official statement on the situation via Twitter in which he alleges that Apple was well aware of his writing before hiring him and denounces claims that he “parted ways” with the company, stating that he was fired by Apple in a “snap decision.” The tweets from Martínez can be seen below:
1. Apple actively recruited me for my role on the ads team, reaching out via a former colleague to convince me to join. Apple found my experience in the ads space, specifically around data and privacy, highly relevant to their efforts and persuaded me to leave my then role.
— Antonio García Martínez (@antoniogm) May 14, 2021
3. Apple was well aware of my writing before hiring me. My references were questioned extensively about my bestselling book and my real professional persona (rather than literary one).
This set of prominent Valley VCs and execs are all willing to assert as much under oath.
— Antonio García Martínez (@antoniogm) May 14, 2021
5. Apple has issued a statement that clearly implies there was some negative behavior by me during my time at Apple. That is defamatory and categorically false.
— Antonio García Martínez (@antoniogm) May 14, 2021
Apple initially told The Verge in a statement:
At Apple, we have always strived to create an inclusive, welcoming workplace where everyone is respected and accepted. Behavior that demeans or discriminates against people for who they are has no place here.
The company has yet to comment since Martínez released his statement. The reaction to the firing of Martínez from Silicon Valley developers has been mixed with many supporting Apple’s decision, however, some feel that Martínez has been unfairly targeted. One such developer is now offering a bounty for the names of the Apple employees that signed the petition to have Martínez fired, promising to publicly release the names to the public so that other developers who don’t wish to support cancel culture can avoid hiring them.
I'm curious how people feel about this.
A founder is offering crypto for anyone who can provide him with a list of the Apple employees who got Antonio Garcia Martinez fired
He wants to publish it so everyone knows who to avoid hiringhttps://t.co/lJSalz9mwV
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) May 16, 2021
Read more at Breitbart News here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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