The leader of Twitter’s “trust and safety” team served as the organization’s de facto CEO prior to Elon Musk’s purchase of the social media site in October, Musk disclosed on Friday.
Musk was making reference to Yoel Roth, a former employee of Twitter.
In response to a tweet from Twitter user Mike Solana, who stated, “it’s pretty clear at this point the ‘trust and safety’ team was effectively running the entire company,” he declared that Roth was Twitter’s “real CEO.”
one bizarre element of the twitter story, it's pretty clear at this point the "trust and safety" team was effectively running the entire company
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) December 9, 2022
In November, Roth made the decision to leave Twitter known and criticized Musk’s proposals to safeguard free speech on the site.
Last week, I made the decision to leave my role leading Trust & Safety at Twitter.
Today, I'm sharing a few thoughts about what comes next for the site. https://t.co/QPAQR6zpqU
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 18, 2022
After the “Twitter Files” revealed the inner workings of the company’s filtering mechanisms to the public on Thursday, Musk referred to Roth as the biased “head of censorship” in a tweet.
Roth’s politicized tweets labeling the Trump administration as “actual Nazis in the White House” were the target of Musk’s reference.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022
According to The Twitter Files, under its previous management, the social media behemoth engaged in widespread user filtering and built an elaborate infrastructure to stifle expression at the direction of the Democratic National Committee and other major players.
Up until 2021, Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter, remained as its CEO. He was succeeded by executive Parag Agrawal. Agrawal was let go when Musk bought the platform.
In a tweet sent on Thursday, Musk said Dorsey wasn’t to blame for Twitter’s censoring, asserting that employees like Roth had usurped his authority and made crucial choices without his knowledge or consent.
In reference to Twitter’s leadership, Musk claimed that “the inmates were running the asylum,”. “Jack has a pure heart [in my opinion].”
BREAKING: Twitter Files released by Elon Musk, Matt Taibbi & Bari Weiss, have suggested that a secret group headed by Vijaya Gadde, the Head of Legal, Yoel Roth, the Head of Trust, CEOs Jack Dorsey & Parag, & others, made decisions secretly & without overview to moderate Twitter.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) December 9, 2022
As the scope of Twitter’s censoring methods becomes apparent, Musk is committing to implementing transparency measures at the firm.
More on this story via The Western Journal