X appoints third head of safety in less than two years

Social media giant X (formerly known as Twitter) has appointed its third head of safety—a role that has been left empty since last June, when Ella Irwin resigned her appointment.

Yale Cohen was appointed Head of Brand Safety and Advertiser Solutions, and Kylie McRoberts was promoted to Head of Safety, X announced on Tuesday.

The two will be tasked with spearheading X’s safety initiatives, which will include attempting to convince sponsors that the platform does not profit from hate speech or terrorist content.

“During her time at X, McRoberst has led initiatives to increase transparency in our moderation practices through labels, improve security with passkeys, and build out our new Safety Center of Excellence in Austin,” X said in a statement.

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McRoberts will be the third head of trust and safety since Musk assumed leadership of X. Just a few weeks after Musk took over the website, the first head of safety, Yoel Roth, left and criticised the company for laxing up its rules against nasty and misleading content. Ella Irwin, his replacement, also quit in June of last year.

Since Elon Musk acquired the social media network in October 2022, X’s trust and safety division—which is in charge of regulating the kind of content that emerges on the platform—has encountered numerous difficulties.

“When we say safety and freedom of speech can and must coexist on X, we mean it. And the safety team works tirelessly, day and night, across the globe to make that happen,” Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino said Tuesday in a company-wide email.

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