Musk’s house crumbling? His ‘enforcer’ Ella Irwin quits Twitter
Musk’s house crumbling? His ‘enforcer’ Ella Irwin quits Twitter
Ella Irwin, the head of trust and safety at Twitter, informed Reuters that she has resigned from her position at the social media company. Irwin, who joined Twitter in June 2022, took charge of the trust and safety team in November after the previous head, Yoel Roth, stepped down. Her responsibilities involved overseeing the moderation of content.
Earlier this month, Musk announced the appointment of Linda Yaccarino, the former chief of advertising at NBCUniversal, as Twitter’s new CEO.
One of Musk’s staunchest supporters
Irwin was one of Musk’s staunchest supporters and was often referred to by others as Musk’s personal ‘Enforcer.’ Bloomberg reported that Irwin had previously left Twitter during the initial days of Musk’s tenure, but was asked to return amid surging resignations.
Irwin first joined Twitter’s trust and safety team in June, left when Musk was in the process of taking over, rejoined Twitter and quickly climbed the ranks to become the head of the division after Elon Musk assumed complete control of the company, resulting in the departure or termination of her superiors.
During the incident involving the doxxing of Elon Musk and his private jet, Twitter faced backlash for suspending journalists. The Washington Post reported that internally, the suspensions were attributed not directly to Musk but rather to the “direction of Ella.”
A public fallout
However, in December 2022, just months after Musk took control of Twitter, Irwin and Musk had a public fallout. In December, Elon Musk and his team turned Twitter’s suicide prevention measures off. Twitter had disabled the platforms’ #ThereIsHelp feature, which was designed to share suicide-prevention resources alongside certain content.
As per a report by Ars Technica, shortly after the news was reported by Reuters, Irwin emailed Reuters who had broken the news, to confirm that the feature was “temporarily removed.” She said that it would be brought back this week, once Twitter finished “fixing and revamping our prompts.”
However, things took a bizarre turn, when Elon Musk contradicted Irwin’s statement, saying that Reuters’ report on the subject was false and the feature was never removed. In a following tweet, Musk declared Reuters’ report “fake news,” and reminded users that “Twitter doesn’t prevent suicide.”
Irwin’s departure was unceremonious, like her peers
Fortune previously reported that Irwin’s internal Slack account appeared to have been deactivated.
Since billionaire Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October, the platform has faced criticism for its insufficient safeguards against harmful content. Irwin’s departure aligns with the platform’s struggle to retain advertisers, as brands are cautious about being associated with inappropriate content.
Following Musk’s acquisition, Twitter has significantly reduced costs and laid off thousands of employees, including many who were involved in efforts to prevent harmful and illegal content, ensure election integrity, and promote accurate information on the platform.
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
What's Your Reaction?
