Twitter is actually safer since Elon Musk took control, claims former safety chief Yoel Roth

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Twitter is a safer place under Elon Musk’s ownership than it was previously, the former head of safety and trust has claimed. 

Yoel Roth, who was one of the more senior executives to survive the mass layoffs and repeatedly tried to assuage people’s concerns about the platform under Musk’s leadership, resigned on November 10. 

He wrote in an opinion piece for The New York Times: “Almost immediately upon the acquisition’s close, a wave of racist and antisemitic trolling emerged on Twitter. Wary marketers, including those at General Mills, Audi and Pfizer, slowed down or paused ad spending on the platform, kicking off a crisis within the company to protect precious ad revenue.”

Roth continued: “In response, Mr. Musk empowered my team to move more aggressively to remove hate speech across the platform — censoring more content, not less. Our actions worked: Before my departure, I shared data about Twitter’s enforcement of hateful conduct, showing that by some measures, Twitter was actually safer under Mr. Musk than it was before.”

He also wrote: “His ability to make decisions unilaterally about the site’s future is constrained by a marketing industry he neither controls, nor has managed to win over.”

Musk, a “free speech absolutist”, has said Twitter will have a “content moderation council” and any problematic accounts would not be reinstated before the council’s creation.

Twitter’s new owner has also been very vocal about giving “power to the people,” and described Twitter’s previous verification policy as a “lords and peasants” system.

However, Roth commented that even as Musk “criticizes the capriciousness of platform policies, he perpetuates the same lack of legitimacy through his impulsive changes and tweet-length pronouncements about Twitter’s rules. In appointing himself ‘chief twit,’ Mr. Musk has made clear that at the end of the day, he’ll be the one calling the shots.”

Roth concluded: “It was for this reason that I chose to leave the company: A Twitter whose policies are defined by edict has little need for a trust and safety function dedicated to its principled development.”