(San Francisco) Ella Irwin confirmed on Friday that she had resigned from her position as head of security and content moderation at Twitter, the second departure to this position since the takeover of the social network by Elon Musk in late October.
“One or two people noticed I quit Twitter yesterday,” she joked on her account on Friday, after 24 hours of rumors and media articles.
“I did quit,” she continued. “It has been an amazing experience and I am so grateful to have worked with this incredible team of passionate, creative and hardworking people.”
“I will continue to cheer you on and cheer on Twitter along the way,” she concluded, without giving further details on her reasons for leaving.
Ella Irwin replaced Yoel Roth in November.
He had resigned in rejection of the methods of Elon Musk, who “define the rules of Twitter with unilateral decrees”, he later explained in an op-ed published by the New York Times.
He also warned that the new chief executive had failed at all to “convince advertisers” to stay, a major problem for Twitter’s business model.
The boss of Tesla and SpaceX advocates an almost absolutist vision of freedom of expression which repels many associations for the defense of human rights and minorities, the American left and many brands.
Since acquiring the social network for $44 billion, its value has plummeted and the platform has transformed as controversial figures, including far-right ones, have returned.
Thursday, Twitter was the scene of yet another controversy, about a documentary titled “What is a woman? about gender issues and transgender people, with Matt Walsh, a commentator known for his transphobic comments, which appeared last year on the conservative news site The Daily Wire.
The outlet, which recently decided to take its podcasts to Twitter, criticized the service for trying to remove the film in the name of content moderation policies, which prohibit not using a person’s chosen pronouns. (say “he” instead of “of her”, for example).
“It’s a mistake of several people at Twitter,” Elon Musk said, explaining that in his view, while it’s “rude” not to use someone’s correct pronouns, it “doesn’t violate no law”.
He then indicated that the film would be viewable for users subscribed to The Daily Wire account, but would not be “recommended” by the algorithms.
