Twitter's content moderation lead has resigned.
Ella Irwin, Twitter's head of trust and safety, recently announced her resignation from Elon Musk's Twitter on June 1, making the departure of one of Musk's most important executives in the company.
Irwin started working as Twitter's content moderation lead in Nov. 2022, in the middle of Musk's takeover of the company, per The Verge.
Ella Irwin Resignation Details
Irwin revealed to Reuters that she had officially resigned from Twitter after joining Twitter in June 2022 - a blow in Musk's plans for the company since he abdicated his position as CEO when he thought Twitter had become stable.
While Musk and Irwin didn't address or release a statement about the reason behind the latter's resignation, the timing aligns with Twitter's drama du jour, as Tech Crunch puts it. The publication speculated that Twitter "canceled a deal" with Daily Wire to make its film "What is a Woman" available on the platform for free.
The movie is a feature-length film that "attacks" transgender people, one that Musk said was allowed and perfectly at home on Twitter. He later said in a tweet that the cancelation was a mistake and that the film is definitely allowed on the platform.
While the documentary did become available on Twitter, its reach was limited as of press time, with it featuring the following label: "Visibility limited: this Tweet may violate Twitter's rules against Hateful Conduct."
It is unclear how the situation with the video is connected to Irwin's resignation, but she is likely involved in the decision to add the label to the video.
Irwin's reason to resign aside, her departure marks one of Musk's most important executives in the company. You may recall that Twitter's content moderation has been the target of criticism and outrage by many a person and organization.
Advertisers previously left the company due to the lack of content moderation and Musk's broken promise to create a Content Moderation Council that would look over the platform's content.
Companies that have paused their ads on Twitter include the Volkswagen Group, General Mills, Pfizer, and Mondalez, with General Mills being the first to flee Twitter, per CNN.
It is now unclear what will happen to Twitter's content moderation team now that its head has resigned; Musk laid off many of them during his takeover, while some voluntarily resigned.
Ella Irwin's Contributions To Twitter
Irwin first started working on Twitter in June 2022, months before Musk's takeover happened. However, she only became content moderation lead when her predecessor, Yoel Roth, left the company after clashing with Musk over his new hands-off approach to content moderation.
Since then, Twitter's content moderation became automated to presumably save money as the previously labor-intensive human reviews require employees and money to pay them a wage, per The Guardian.
During her time as Twitter's content moderation lead, Irwin became one of Musk's more loyal employees in Twitter; she encouraged her team to stay and find a way to work with Musk by adjusting and supporting how he wanted to lead the company, per The Straits Times.
