Ella Irwin, the Twitter head of safety and content moderation, has resigned from her position. News of her resignation hit the internet a few hours ago and is raising some dust among netizens. Her time at Twitter as the head of safety and content moderation didn’t last up to a year.
She took over from the previous occupant of that position, Yoel Roth, in November last year. Now as she exits the company, someone else would have to fill up her role, and details on that are not available. The reason behind her departure from Twitter is unknown, as she holds back from sharing with two sources of this information.
These sources both confirm that Twitter is not also providing information on Ella Irwin’s exit from the company. But there are some similarities between Ella’s exit and that of Yoel, the previous occupant of that position. Netizens are also connecting the dots between Ella’s resignation and a recent issue that questioned Twitter’s freedom of speech claims.
Twitter’s head of safety and content moderation leaves the company following a freedom of speech-related issue
According to Elon Musk, one of his main objectives for purchasing Twitter was to grant users freedom of speech. This sounds very ideal because all users of Twitter have an opinion and what to be heard. Despite the opposition Elon got from certain groups, there were still a few people that gave their support and were confident in Elon’s dream.
One such person was Yoel Roth, the then head of safety and content moderation at Twitter. But after the purchase of Twitter, Yoel tendered his resignation, saying that his “optimism ultimately faded.” This faded optimism is a result of Elon’s style of doing things and his desire to take action on his own.
After taking over the safety and content moderation team, Ella Irwin was firmly on Elon’s side. But in less than a year of her occupying her position at Twitter, she is already stepping down. Netizens are now linking her resignation to the issue involving the folks at the Daily Wire and Twitter.
Ahead of the debut of their film “What is a Woman”, the team at Daily Wire reached out to Twitter for promotion. After initially agreeing to offer a promotion package for the film, Twitter then turned back on their words. They then informed the Daily Wire that the promotion will not pull through, and the film will be flagged as hateful content.
This decision came after Twitter reviewed the film, which questions the actual identity of a woman. According to Twitter, the film misgenders girls and transgender people, hence the need to restrict its reach on the platform. This action is against the freedom of speech that Elon Musk was fighting for prompting his Twitter purchase.
Is this issue the main reason behind Ella Irwin’s exit as Twitter’s head of safety and content moderation? There is no backing to this claim, as the two events might have occurred within the same period. But the issue has raised a lot of dust on the internet, as some argue that Twitter is trying to restrict the voice of its users.
Twitter canceled a deal with @realdailywire to premiere What is a Woman? for free on the platform because of two instances of “misgendering.”
I’m not kidding.
Here’s what happened:🧵1/16
— Jeremy Boreing (@JeremyDBoreing) June 1, 2023