Twitter has been running around in circles in terms of changes that continue to baffle many people.
Now, the firm’s former head of trust and safety is opening his mouth on what he feels about the chaos that continues to take center stage as we speak.
Photo: Knight Foundation / Twitter
Yoel Roth says he tried his level best to avoid getting fired by Musk on the day that the billionaire opted to take over. But with time, things became worse anyways and he had to resign.
Roth says his perspective on the matter is linked to the firm’s chaotic path that arose in the initial public interview that took place when he opted to resign from the company during the month’s start.
The first question that was thrown in his direction was related to why Roth opted to bail out instead of coming face-to-face with Elon Musk. But Roth says that the way things were going, it was quite evident that Musk would end up taking away all the hard work and effort his team had put and that’s when he added that the time had come to leave.
In the past, Twitter had a very systematic approach in terms of governance. There were plenty of rules and most of them were enforced when written. But when such a system opted to go away, there was no head for trust and safety required, he added.
Today, there are so many questions raised on what Musk plans to do with zero to few people looking after the app’s content moderation and various violations. There are people returning whose accounts were once suspended because they broke the app’s policy. But now, there is more news about how all accounts could soon be reinstated, thanks to Musk.
The plans for a content moderation council are now out of the window and advertisers are dropping out of the platform like flies. And the icing on the cake has to be the botched Blue Twitter subscription that came with verification for just $8.
While you may have thought that Roth would declare Twitter doomed, that was not the case. He says that it’s not only Musk who is to blame for the app’s poor state but actually the very brittle content moderation system that would break thanks to threat actors seen online.
Twitter can soon be a super toxic place but Roth wants it to stay resilient. He forecasts plenty of challenges in the future and he does not feel Musk would stumble too badly.
He has provided advice to Twitter to be aware of canaries that go about suggesting ideas related to how Twitter is not right and more needs to be done.
There is a high probability that we see Google and Apple unite against Twitter on the App Store and bring about the subject of content moderation guidelines. But the likelihood of that is low, he added.
Read next: World’s Most Popular YouTuber Shoots Down Musk’s Challenge Of Twitter Competing With YouTube
Now, the firm’s former head of trust and safety is opening his mouth on what he feels about the chaos that continues to take center stage as we speak.
Yoel Roth says he tried his level best to avoid getting fired by Musk on the day that the billionaire opted to take over. But with time, things became worse anyways and he had to resign.
Roth says his perspective on the matter is linked to the firm’s chaotic path that arose in the initial public interview that took place when he opted to resign from the company during the month’s start.
The first question that was thrown in his direction was related to why Roth opted to bail out instead of coming face-to-face with Elon Musk. But Roth says that the way things were going, it was quite evident that Musk would end up taking away all the hard work and effort his team had put and that’s when he added that the time had come to leave.
In the past, Twitter had a very systematic approach in terms of governance. There were plenty of rules and most of them were enforced when written. But when such a system opted to go away, there was no head for trust and safety required, he added.
Today, there are so many questions raised on what Musk plans to do with zero to few people looking after the app’s content moderation and various violations. There are people returning whose accounts were once suspended because they broke the app’s policy. But now, there is more news about how all accounts could soon be reinstated, thanks to Musk.
The plans for a content moderation council are now out of the window and advertisers are dropping out of the platform like flies. And the icing on the cake has to be the botched Blue Twitter subscription that came with verification for just $8.
While you may have thought that Roth would declare Twitter doomed, that was not the case. He says that it’s not only Musk who is to blame for the app’s poor state but actually the very brittle content moderation system that would break thanks to threat actors seen online.
.@yoyoel: "Even if you wanted a policy that is 'fuck it,' you can't. You simply cannot do that if you are operating what you want to be a commercial viable consumer service." pic.twitter.com/oyd7t4BSVg
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 29, 2022
Roth on Hunter's laptop: "As we are threat modeling the 2020 election, it's obvious to think about the most influential thing that impacted the '16 election, which was the hack/leak campaign organized by the Russian govt. So we would've been stupid to not think about that risk" pic.twitter.com/GJHMlC9vWj
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 29, 2022
Twitter can soon be a super toxic place but Roth wants it to stay resilient. He forecasts plenty of challenges in the future and he does not feel Musk would stumble too badly.
He has provided advice to Twitter to be aware of canaries that go about suggesting ideas related to how Twitter is not right and more needs to be done.
As today's #informed22 program ends, @yoyoel had one last message for Elon Musk: "Humility goes a really long way." Join us tomorrow at https://t.co/14pSGlW1yd
— Knight Foundation (@knightfdn) November 29, 2022
There is a high probability that we see Google and Apple unite against Twitter on the App Store and bring about the subject of content moderation guidelines. But the likelihood of that is low, he added.
Read next: World’s Most Popular YouTuber Shoots Down Musk’s Challenge Of Twitter Competing With YouTube
