Twitter’s Trust and Safety Chief Resigns Amidst Content Protection Criticism
Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, has announced her resignation from the social media giant. Since billionaire Elon Musk acquired the company in October, Twitter has faced backlash for its inadequate measures against harmful content. Irwin, who took over as head of the trust and safety team in November following the departure of Yoel Roth, was responsible for overseeing content moderation.
When contacted by Reuters, an automated reply from Twitter included a poop emoji. Irwin declined to provide further comments, and Musk has yet to respond to the request for comment.
Irwin’s departure comes at a time when Twitter is struggling to retain advertisers due to concerns about their association with inappropriate content. Earlier this month, Musk appointed Linda Yaccarino, former NBCUniversal advertising chief, as Twitter’s new CEO.
Reports suggest that Irwin’s internal Slack account has been deactivated, indicating her departure. Since Musk’s acquisition, Twitter has significantly reduced costs, leading to layoffs of thousands of employees, including those working on efforts to combat harmful and illegal content, safeguard election integrity, and promote accurate information on the platform.
Musk has introduced a feature called Community Notes, allowing users to provide additional context to tweets, as a means to counter misleading information on Twitter.
Additionally, Twitter faces increasing regulatory scrutiny regarding its content moderation practices. The company withdrew from a voluntary agreement with the European Union aimed at combating disinformation, but expressed its commitment to complying with forthcoming EU internet regulations.
Thierry Breton, the EU industry chief, recently warned Twitter that it cannot evade legal obligations in the EU after abandoning the voluntary agreement.