Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, has resigned from the social media company, according to Reuters. Irwin joined Twitter in June 2022 and took the lead of the trust and safety team in November after Yoel Roth stepped down. Irwin was in charge of content moderation. Following billionaire Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in October of last year, the social media network has come under fire for insufficient protection against hazardous content. The site is having difficulty retaining advertising because companies are apprehensive about displaying next to inappropriate content. In the midst of all of this, Irwin resigned.
Musk appointed Linda Yaccarino, former NBC Universal advertising executive, as Twitter’s new CEO earlier this month. According to Reuters, an email request for comment on Irwin’s departure received an auto-response with a shit emoji. Irwin’s internal Slack account looked to be deactivated, according to Fortune.
Soon after taking over Twitter, Musk reduced costs, and the company lay off thousands of people. Many of those fired had worked on measures to block unlawful and damaging content, as well as to defend election integrity and ensure accurate information was displayed on the site. Musk has advocated Community Notes, a tool that allows users to contribute context to tweets, as a way to combat false information on Twitter.
Musk is in hot water even away from Twitter
Musk is in hot water even away from Twitter. In a proposed class action, investors accused Tesla CEO of insider trading. Musk is accused of manipulating the cryptocurrency dogecoin, causing investors to lose billions of dollars. The filing was submitted in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday night. Investors claim Musk utilized Twitter posts, paid internet influencers, his 2021 appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” and other “publicity stunts” to financially trade at their cost through numerous Dogecoin wallets controlled by him or Tesla.
According to the lawsuit, Musk used a “deliberate course of carnival barking, market manipulation, and insider trading” to deceive investors and promote himself and his companies. In addition to Twitter, Musk also runs SpaceX, a rocket and spacecraft manufacturer, as well as Tesla, which makes electric cars.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Musk and Tesla, declined to comment. According to reports, the lawyers for the investors did not react quickly to demands for comment. Investors have accused Musk, the world’s second-richest person, of purposefully pushing up the price of Dogecoin by more than 36,000% over two years and then allowing it to plummet. In a case that began in June, they added their most recent allegations in a proposed third amended complaint.