There are valid reasons why keeping the workplace apolitical is valuable. When it isn't, one political group usually established dominance and suppresses the opposition. The workplace becomes an environment where a subset of political views monopolize conversation, and a large portion of workers are alienated as a result. If your goal is to hire the best employees regardless of political leanings, then maintaining an apolitical workplace is a good choice.
My point is that your goals do not trump everyone else's goals just because they're reasonable business goals. There are things in life that are more important than hiring the best employees.
However, is it possible to ask others to refrain from "calling him out" in such a public setting? No, not at all. Notch is a hated figure, and he is hated with an intensity that only Progressive religious fervor can bring about.
This is how you silence people. By your own actions, make association with the target so troublesome that the institutions - reliably feckless as they are - will simply prefer to exclude them.
Or Twitter themselves, for that matter...
Now clearly, Mr. Persson has not been completely un-personed. Yet. But the process is rolling.
If Microsoft et al choose to make public statements regarding contentious non-technical issues, then it seems unreasonable to me that they attempt to silence dissenting views.