Twitter Head of Trust and Safety Ella Irwin resigned Thursday, the second person to hold that role under Elon Musk who stepped down in the seven months since his acquisition of the social media giant.
She oversaw an outlet that has faced criticism for lax protections against harmful content since billionaire Elon Musk acquired it in October.
Irwin, who joined Twitter in June 2022, took over as head of the trust and security team in November when previous head Yoel Roth stepped down. She oversaw the moderation of the content.
An email to Twitter returned an auto-reply with a poop emoji. Irwin declined further comment and Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kara Swishera tech journalist and frequent critic of Musk called Irwin an “Elon loyalist” who was “kicked to the curb.”
Twitter Head of Trust and Safety Ella Irwin resigned Thursday, the second person to hold that role under Elon Musk who stepped down in the seven months since his takeover of the social media giant
Irwin’s departure comes as the platform struggles to retain advertisers, with brands wary of appearing next to inappropriate content.
When she joined Twitter, Yahoo News interviewed a former employee who said she had never met an executive as “smart or cutthroat” as Irwin.
Another added that while working at Amazon, Irwin “made me cry the first week.”
The Washington Post reported that Irwin had been a conduit for the release of “The Twitter Files,” particularly those published by Bari Weiss of The Free Press.
“My only involvement with Bari was to pull up accounts she had questions about and make sure she could see their status/enforcement history. That’s it,” she claimed.
In December, when Irwin took over from Roth, Twitter disbanded its Trust and Safety Council, the advisory group of about 100 independent civil, human rights, and other organizations the company created in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, address self-judgment. damage and other issues on the platform.
The council was scheduled to meet with Twitter representatives. But Twitter notified the group via email that it would disband the group shortly before the meeting was due to take place, several members said.
Irwin took over from Roth, who had become controversial after he resigned from the platform last December.
In December, when Irwin took over from Roth, Twitter disbanded its Trust and Safety Council, the advisory group of about 100 independent civil, human rights, and other organizations the company created in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, address self-judgment. damage and other issues on the platform
Musk has been in charge of Twitter since his acquisition in October 2022
He was forced to flee the $1.1 million Bay Area mansion he shares with his boyfriend after Elon Musk shared part of his thesis proposing giving kids access to the gay hook-up app Grindr.
Roth’s dissertation, written in 2016 while a student at the University of Pennsylvania, contained the claim that many under-18s access the gay hook-up app Grindr despite being too young to do so.
He then suggested creating an age-appropriate version of the app to provide support for LGBT youth.
During his time at Twitter, Roth had a huge influence in deciding which posts to delete and which accounts to suspend.
He also gleefully joked about upcoming meetings with FBI officials in the recently released Twitter files.
The former trust and security manager became emblematic of what free speech fans say were the problems with censoring Twitter posts that went against a liberal point of view.
Musk announced earlier this month that he had hired Linda Yaccarino, former advertising chief of NBCUniversal, to become Twitter’s new CEO.
Fortune previously reported that Irwin’s internal Slack account appeared to be deactivated.
Irwin took over from Yoel Roth, who had become controversial after he resigned from the platform last December
Since Musk’s acquisition, Twitter has slashed costs and laid off thousands of employees, many of whom had worked in efforts to prevent harmful and illegal content, protect election integrity, and surface accurate information on the site
Since the Musk acquisition, Twitter has slashed costs and laid off thousands of employees, many of whom had worked in efforts to prevent harmful and illegal content, protect election integrity, and surface accurate information on the site.
Musk has promoted a feature called Community Notes, which allows users to add context to tweets, as a way to combat misleading information on Twitter.
The company also faces increasing scrutiny from regulators for its mitigation efforts.
Twitter pulled out of a voluntary agreement with the European Union to tackle disinformation, while saying it would comply with upcoming EU internet rules.
EU industry chief Thierry Breton warned Twitter last week that it would not be able to circumvent legal obligations in the EU after the voluntary agreement ended.