Ella Irwin has resigned from the company after less than seven months as Elon Musk’s head of trust and safety on Twitter.
Irwin confirmed to Reuters that she had resigned, but gave no reason for her exit. Earlier, Fortune reported that Irwin’s Slack Twitter account appears to have been deactivated. Neither Irwin nor Musk has publicly tweeted about her departure; Email the journalist’s Twitter account requesting a comment and an automated reply with a poop emoji.
As Twitter’s Head of Trust and Safety, Irwin oversaw the enforcement of content moderation policies. Musk, who describes himself as the “absolute freedom of speech,” has relaxed some restrictions in Twitter’s content policies — and reinstated thousands of previously banned accounts. Third party groups have Twitter swipe for the apparent increases in cases of hate speech and laxity in policy enforcement since Musk took control; Musk has previously denied an increase in hate speech on Twitter.
Irwin assumed the position in November 2023, following the resignation of former Trust and Safety Chairman Yoel Roth. On November 18, in an op-ed published in The New York Times, Roth explained that Musk’s unilateral decision-making as CEO of Twitter led to his decision to resign. “When Mr. Musk named himself the ‘chief of con’, Roth wrote, he made it clear that at the end of the day, he would be the one to decide.” This is why I chose to leave the company: a Twitter whose policies are determined by decree has little need for a trust and security function dedicated to its initial development. .”
Irwin joined Twitter in June 2023, before Musk closed the acquisition of the company in October. She was previously Vice President of Products and Consumer Trust at communications software company Twilio, and prior to that was General Manager of Amazon Marketplace Abuse Products Management. Irwin has also worked for Google, eHarmony, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase.
On Thursday, the Daily Wire’s CEO complained that Twitter had canceled a deal to screen her “gender ideology movement” documentary “What Is a Woman?” about instances of misrepresentation in the film, and that he was told by Twitter that the platform would limit its access under the company’s hateful conduct policy. Musk responded that the decision was “a mistake by a lot of people on Twitter” and said the Daily Wire film was “definitely permissible”.
Musk announced last month that he had hired Linda Iaccarino, formerly NBCUniversal’s senior executive of ad sales, as CEO of Twitter. “Linda will run the company and I will build the products,” Musk said in an interview with CNBC. Yaccarino is expected to go live on Twitter later this month.
