Twitter trust and safety chief Ella Irwin resigns

Twitter’s head of trust and safety Ella Irwin has resigned from her role at the Elon Musk-owned social media platform.

Irwin, who confirmed her resignation to Reuters on Thursday, had served about seven months and declined to give a reason for her decision.

Irwin manages the Twitter team that fights misinformation, removes offensive content and helps maintain the integrity of the Twitter platform. But Twitter has faced significant challenges in preventing offensive content during Irwin’s tenure and since Musk began serving as CEO.

Musk has previously said, for example, that combating child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is “Priority #1” for the platform. Reports from NBC News and CNBC in January found that illegal content still circulates freely on the platform.

Irwin’s departure comes at a tumultuous time for the social media network, which has struggled with the distribution of the alleged documentary on a conservative transgender website. The video was uploaded to the Twitter platform on Thursday, but was “restricted visibility”, preventing users from retweeting or commenting on it.

On Friday, Musk shared the video after visibility restrictions were apparently lifted.

Twitter’s trust and safety team, the unit Irwin ran until earlier this week, would have been responsible for limiting the spread of the post. Irwin’s predecessor, Yoel Roth, stepped down after just two weeks of Musk’s ownership.

Musk, who has owned Twitter since October 2022 and describes himself as an advocate for free speech, called the tagging a “mistake” but had not removed the visibility restrictions as of Friday. The dissemination of explicit, violent, or hateful content on social media networks is of serious concern to lawmakers, regulators, advocacy groups, and the public.

Concerns about objectionable content, including racist or sexually offensive material, prompted a flight from advertisers shortly after Musk acquired Twitter. Since then, he has taken steps to stem the tide and court advertisers, including hiring former NBCUniversal advertising executive Linda Iaccarino as CEO.

Neither Irwin nor Musk returned a request for comment. Twitter’s press email provided an automated, non-informational response.