Ex- Twitter safety chief admits Hunter Biden laptop suppression was a ‘mistake’
Twitter’s Former Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth said that he initially thought it was part of a ‘hack and leak’ operation.
The former head of trust and safety at Twitter recently defended the company’s choice to suspend a Christian satire outlet for misgendering a public official.
Ex-Twitter safety chief Yoel Roth slammed conservative Twitter accounts during a discussion with journalist Kara Swisher that was later released on her Thursday podcast.
The Babylon Bee (The Bee) was suspended from Twitter after it made a joke at the expense of transgender Health and Human Services assistant secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, who identifies as a female. The Bee had published a satirical piece congratulating the government official for being dubbed its "Man of the Year" for 2022.
While letting him know that she did not agree with Twitter’s choice to suspend The Bee, Swisher invited Roth to explain his company’s course of action at the time.
The Twitter logo is shown at its corporate headquarters in San Francisco, Calif. April 28, 2015. (REUTERS/Robert Galbraith)
"It’s interesting to think about what the competing tensions around that are. I want to start by acknowledging that the targeting and the victimization of the trans community on Twitter is very real, very life-threatening, and extraordinarily serious," Roth claimed. "We have seen from a number of Twitter accounts, including LibsOfTikTok notably, that there are orchestrated campaigns that particularly are singling out a group that is already particularly vulnerable within society."
He went on to say, "Not only is it not funny, but it is dangerous, and it does contribute to an environment that makes people unsafe in the world."
Roth also shielded himself behind Twitter’s regulations, suggesting that his team was merely enforcing the rules on the books.
"So let’s start from a premise that it’s fu**ed up. But then again let’s look at what Twitter’s written policies are, Twitter’s written policies prohibit misgendering, full stop. And the Babylon Bee, in the name of satire, misgendered Admiral Rachel Levine."
Kara Swisher claimed that Elon Musk recently called her an "a--hole" in an email. (REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs)
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Swisher interjected by defending the post, saying it was "satire."
Roth held his position, "Nominally, but it’s still misgendering, and there can be a very long and academic discussion of satire and sort of the lines there," he added, "But we landed on the side of enforcing our rules as written."
Swisher responded, noting in hindsight, "and that’s how it got bought by Elon Musk, just in case you’re interested. He was mad about that, I remember that."
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, who long refused to delete the tweet despite the Bee being suspended from Twitter until Elon Musk eventually reinstated the account, continues to stand behind the joke.
"We called a male person a man. That's proper gendering. Anything else would have been misgendering. We're aware that Twitter has a rule that says otherwise, but Twitter's rule is dumb," Dillon told Fox News Digital.
As it stands, while Musk's Twitter has reinstated the Bee and other accounts suspended for policy violations from the past, the terms of service still lay out the old rules about misgendering.
Elon Musk's Twitter profile displayed on a phone screen and Twitter logo displayed on a screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on September 15, 2022. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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"We prohibit targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category, Twitter’s Hateful Conduct Policy reads as of the writing of this article. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals. We also prohibit the dehumanization of a group of people based on their religion, caste, age, disability, serious disease, national origin, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation."
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