Twitter's content moderation head Yoel Roth quits as departures alarm the FTC

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Twitter’s content moderation head quits as departures alarm the FTC

Yoel Roth had become the public face of Twitter’s efforts to reassure users and advertisers the service would not become a ‘free-for-all’

By Joseph Menn, Cat Zakrzewski, Faiz Siddiqui, Nitasha Tiku and Drew Harwell
Updated November 10, 2022 at 7:19 p.m. EST|Published November 10, 2022 at 11:05 a.m. EST

SAN FRANCISCO — Several top executives resigned from Twitter on Thursday, some of whom cited fears over the risks from Elon Musk’s leadership in a stunning exodus that prompted federal regulators to warn they might step in.

One of the most surprising was the company’s head of moderation and safety, Yoel Roth, who had become the public face of the company’s efforts to reassure users and advertisers that Twitter would not descend into a “free-for-all.” On Wednesday, he appeared on a Twitter Spaces public meeting to defend the company to advertisers alongside Musk.

Roth’s was one of a number of resignations including Chief Information Security Officer Lea Kissner, the company’s chief privacy officer and its chief compliance officer, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters. Several other members of the site’s privacy and security unit also had resigned and those remaining were trying to stop a wave of abuse in the company’s expanded paid service, Twitter Blue, according to those people.

The privacy departures prompted a rare warning from the Federal Trade Commission, which has emerged as the government’s top Silicon Valley watchdog. It marked the second time in two days that a federal official has expressed concern about the chaotic developments at the company, coming less than 24 hours after President Biden said Musk’s relationships with other countries deserved scrutiny.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/10/twitter-security-resignations/

Non-paywalled link: https://wapo.st/3EnvF8X

[catbyte]

1. What a spectacular shit show this is turning out to be. I feel so bad for the employees.

It must be an awful thing to have your career implode and lose your job or be forced to resign for ethical reasons, all because a spoiled, clueless rich boy with too much money decided he needed a new plaything and is fucking everything up.