The long-running gender discrimination case against X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, has come to a quiet close. The company and former engineer Sydney Frederick-Osborn have jointly moved to dismiss the lawsuit, signaling the end of the X Sex Bias Suit that accused Elon Musk’s restructured Twitter of fostering conditions that deliberately drove out women employees.
The voluntary dismissal, filed Tuesday in California federal court, follows notice in August that both sides had reached a confidential settlement. Details of the agreement were not disclosed, leaving the financial and procedural terms of the resolution under wraps.
From Twitter to “Titter”: Allegations of a Hostile Culture
Frederick-Osborn, who joined Twitter as a staff engineer, filed her complaint in January 2024, alleging that Musk’s sweeping overhaul after his 2022 acquisition turned the company into a workplace hostile to women and older workers.
She claimed that Musk’s first major act — slashing Twitter’s staff by 50% — disproportionately affected women and older employees. Although her age bias claims were later dismissed, her sex discrimination allegations gained traction in court.
Frederick-Osborn said she survived the initial layoffs but found the new “Twitter 2.0” culture unbearable. Under Musk’s directive, employees were told to work 12-hour days, seven days a week, and return to full-time in-person work. The ultimatum came in the form of a mass email in November 2022, asking workers to commit to “long hours at high intensity” — or face immediate termination.
Frederick-Osborn refused to click the commitment link and was laid off the next day. She alleged the mandate favored “male and younger workers,” noting that 36% of remaining women were terminated, compared with 28% of men.
