WWE fires exec over wife’s Alt-Right Twitter account
Stamford-based WWE has fired Sal Siino, senior vice president of global content distribution and business development, after being alerted by a Huffington Post writer that Siino”™s wife is the author of the controversial @AmyMek account on Twitter, which has gained notoriety for its anti-Muslim messaging and its enthusiastic espousal of Alt-Right politics and support of white nationalist figures.
According to the May 31 article “Trump”™s Loudest Anti-Muslim Twitter Troll Is A Shady Vegan Married To An (Ousted) WWE Exec,” writer Luke O”™Brien identified Amy Mekelburg as the source of @AmyMek, which first appeared on Twitter five years ago and has since amassed 229,000 followers reading her daily stream of extremist political commentary and links to Alt-Right online media. The article stated that Mekelberg does not have a full-time job and lives with her husband in Fishkill, New York.
However, O”™Brien wrote that Mekelburg stated WWE was aware of Siino”™s marriage to the woman behind @AmyMek and “had asked Siino to keep his connection to his wife quiet.” O”™Brien twice contacted WWE directly to determine if the company was aware of the Siino-@AmyMek connection prior to Siino”™s being hired in February 2017, and was initially told the company was unaware. But on his second contact, O”™Brien wrote that an unnamed WWE spokesperson responded, “Now that it has come to our attention, Sal Siino is no longer an employee.”
O”™Brien noted the irony of Mekelburg”™s anti-Islamic tweets while Siino “was negotiating TV deals in the United Arab Emirates.” Although O”™Brien stated that Siino was aware of his wife’s Twitter account, he did not offer evidence that Siino was involved in creating the @AmyMek Twitter messaging.
O”™Brien also claimed that President Donald Trump “promoted” the @AmyTek account on Twitter. During the summer of 2015, Trump acknowledged two complimentary tweets by @AmyMek related to his nascent presidential campaign, but has made no online or real-life mention of Mekelburg”™s Twitter account since then, nor has he actively promoted the account to his base.
While neither WWE nor Siino publicly commented on what transpired, Mekelburg responded on @AmyMek by accusing O”™Brien of being a stalker and “viciously harassing me, my husband and my loved ones for having an opinion different than his, and supporting @realdonaldtrump.” She added that “O”™Brien went so far as to contact my husband”™s employer and had him fired because of MY OPINIONS and my fight for Jews to exist. My husband was wrongfully fired & discriminated against based on nothing he said, but the fact that his wife stood up against oppression, discrimination, honor killings, female genital mutilations, etc.”
While some fans of @AmyMek offered her sympathy and called for retribution against O”™Brien, the writer used his Twitter channel to respond to his critics with a simple response: “Get stuffed, fascists.”