CEO of SpaceX, Twitter and electric car maker Tesla Elon Musk meets with French President Emmanuel Macron (L) at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on May 15, 2023.
Ludovik Marin | Afp | Getty Images
Twitter’s head of trust and security Ella Irwin has left her position at the Elon Musk-owned social media platform.
Irwin, who confirmed her resignation to Reuters on Thursday, served about seven months and declined to give a reason for her decision.
Irwin led the Twitter team that fought misinformation, removed offensive content, and helped maintain the integrity of the Twitter platform. But Twitter has faced significant challenges in combating offensive content during Irwin’s tenure and after Musk became CEO
Earlier, for example, Musk said. that combating child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, was “Priority #1” for the platform. Reports from NBC News and CNBC in January indicated that illegal content was still freely distributed on the platform.
Irwin’s departure comes at a tumultuous time for the social network, which has struggled with the distribution of an alleged transgender documentary on a conservative site. The video was uploaded to the Twitter platform on Thursday, but was “restricted” so users could not retweet or comment on it.
On Friday, Musk shared a video after the visibility restrictions were apparently lifted.
Twitter’s trust and safety team — the unit Irwin ran until earlier this week — would have restricted the message’s distribution. Irwin’s predecessor, Yoel Roth, left Musk’s ownership just two weeks later.
Musk, who has owned Twitter since October 2022 and has described himself as a supporter of free speech, called the designation “a mistake” but as of Friday had not lifted the visibility restrictions. The dissemination of explicit, violent or hateful content on social media is of considerable concern to lawmakers, regulators, human rights groups and the public.
Concerns about objectionable content, including racially or sexually offensive material, caused advertisers to flee shortly after Musk bought Twitter. Since then, he has taken steps to stem the tide and court advertisers, including hiring former NBCUniversal advertising executive Linda Yacarino as CEO.
Neither Irwin nor Musk responded to a request for comment. Twitter’s email to the press provided an automated non-informative response.
