- Twitter is not safe under Elon Musk.
- Roth has been a part of Twitter’s policy team for a very long time.
- Roth brought up paid verification and the botched deployment of Twitter Blue.
Twitter is not safe under Elon Musk, according to Yoel Roth, the platform’s former head of trust and safety. This was his first interview after quitting Twitter suddenly. Later, he stated he no longer believes this while addressing at a Knight Foundation event.
Roth has been a part of Twitter’s policy team for a very long time. His comments are noteworthy in particular because he was the first senior executive to speak about what was happening at Twitter in the tumultuous days following Musk’s acquisition. Roth described how targeted trolling tactics have made Twitter a target, leading to an increase in racial epithets on the site.
He was initially upbeat, but he ultimately had to depart because of the collapse in “procedural legitimacy.” Roth pointed out that before making significant political decisions on Twitter, Musk had stated his desire to establish a moderation council. Musk, though, immediately demonstrated that he prefers to take the initiative.
Roth said, “he would say things that were consistent with establishing a moderation council, that were consistent with not making capricious, unilateral decisions, and I was optimistic on the basis of that. My optimism ultimately faded.”
Roth also brought up paid verification and the botched deployment of Twitter Blue. He disclosed that despite earlier warnings from his team, Musk chose to disregard them. The precautions that should have been in place to handle it beforehand, according to Roth, “were not in place, and it went exactly off the rails in the way that we predicted.”
After Twitter Blue’s initial launch, scams and impersonations spiked.
He added that while Twitter might be able to enhance its machine learning moderation techniques, the platform will suffer from the lack of seasoned policy and safety staff.
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