According to a tweet by a journalist for Platformer (@platformer), multiple senior level executives in charge of security, privacy and safety & integrity have all resigned from Twitter. Because their roles are core to Twitter’s functioning, the departures may raise questions of Twitter’s viability.
The senior executives are:
- Chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty
- Chief information security officer Lea Kissner
- Global Head of Safety & Integrity Yoel Roth
- Chief privacy officer Damien Kieran
The news was first reported by journalist Casey Newton on Twitter:
According to messages shared in Twitter Slack, Twitter’s CISO, chief privacy office, and chief compliance officer all resigned last night.
An employee says it will be up to engineers to “self-certify compliance with FTC requirements and other laws.”
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) November 10, 2022
Yoel Roth – Global Head of Safety & Integrity
Yoel Roth, the now-former Global Head of Safety & Integrity led a team of data analysts, policy makers and threat investigators that was responsible for making Twitter safe from platform manipulation, artificial amplification of tweets, fake accounts, protecting election integrity, fighting spam and other threats to users and the platform.
An example of the important work carried out by his team was Twitter’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Within four days of the invasion, Twitter added labels to tweets that that were promoting information from Russian media. They also took action to reduce the views of such accounts.
Today, we’re adding labels to Tweets that share links to Russian state-affiliated media websites and are taking steps to significantly reduce the circulation of this content on Twitter.
We’ll roll out these labels to other state-affiliated media outlets in the coming weeks. pic.twitter.com/57Dycmn8lx
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) February 28, 2022
They were also responsible for reducing hateful conduct:
Update on our efforts to combat hateful conduct: We’ve not only mitigated the recent surge in harmful behavior, but have reduced impressions on this content in Search by ~95% relative to even prior baseline levels. We’re continuing our work to make Twitter safer every day. https://t.co/g4X6ue0f8W pic.twitter.com/lK5fMRWCGb
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 9, 2022
Another important contribution was introducing a global crisis misinformation policy.
Yoel’s team unveiled their work in an official Twitter announcement:
“Today, we’re introducing our crisis misinformation policy – a global policy that will guide our efforts to elevate credible, authoritative information, and will help to ensure viral misinformation isn’t amplified or recommended by us during crises.
In times of crisis, misleading information can undermine public trust and cause further harm to already vulnerable communities.
Alongside our existing work to make reliable information more accessible during crisis events, this new approach will help to slow the spread by us of the most visible, misleading content, particularly that which could lead to severe harms.”
There is no word on who will lead Twitter’s Safety & Integrity team.
Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty
Marianne Fogarty was in charge of regulatory compliance.
The Federal Trade Commission recently fined Twitter $150 million dollars for asking users for private information to help keep accounts secure and then using that information to serve targeted advertising.
The FTC issued a statement of concern about what is happening at Google.
A spokesperson from the FTC was quoted by The Hill:
“We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern… …companies must follow our consent decrees. Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them.”
Casey Newton of news site Platformer reported that employees were told that they would be responsible for self-certifying themselves for compliance, which seems like an unorthodox approach to regulatory compliance.
Casey tweeted:
According to messages shared in Twitter Slack, Twitter’s CISO, chief privacy office, and chief compliance officer all resigned last night.
An employee says it will be up to engineers to “self-certify compliance with FTC requirements and other laws.”
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) November 10, 2022
Chief Information Security Officer Lea Kissner
A chief information security officer is primarily in charge of website and company cyber security.
Lea Kisnner tweeted news of her resignation:
I’ve made the hard decision to leave Twitter. I’ve had the opportunity to work with amazing people and I’m so proud of the privacy, security, and IT teams and the work we’ve done.
I’m looking forward to figuring out what’s next, starting with my reviews for @USENIXSecurity 😁
— Lea Kissner (@LeaKissner) November 10, 2022
How Long Can Twitter Survive?
The departure of so many senior-level employees that are key to the successful day to day operation of Twitter may raise concerns in some about how long Twitter can continue as a functioning company.
Musk himself is contributing to the perception that Twitter really is on the way out.
Wow. Elon Musk just told Twitter employees he’s not sure how much run rate the company has and “bankruptcy isn’t out of the question.”
— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) November 10, 2022
Many in the search community are wondering if Twitter is done.
I’d love for this bird to survive. I’ve met so many good folks, kept up w/friends & colleagues far & near. Learned so much from so many & had realtime shared experiences w/friends & strangers alike
I hate watching it turned to dust under the massive weight of 1 man’s fragile ego
— MichelleRobbins (@MichelleRobbins) November 11, 2022
MySpace died. Google + died. If Twitter does… meh. Something else will replace it. Something else always does.
— Rob Woods 💻🎣🏕️ (@robdwoods) November 11, 2022
The departure of so many key executives may cause some to conclude that Twitter is not heading in the right direction.