SAN FRANCISCO (AP) 鈥 A top Twitter executive responsible for safety and content moderation has left the company, her departure coming soon after owner Elon Musk publicly complained about the platform鈥檚 handling of posts about transgender topics.
The departure pointed to a fresh wave of turmoil among key officials at Twitter since last year.
Ella Irwin, Twitter's head of trust and safety, confirmed her resignation in a pair of tweets late Friday. She did not say in the message why she was leaving, but her departure came shortly after Musk criticized Twitter鈥檚 handling of tweets about a conservative media company's documentary that questions transgender medical treatment for children and teens.
Musk was responding to complaints by Jeremy Boreing, co-CEO of the media company, the Daily Wire. Boreing said in tweets and retweets of conservative commentators Thursday that Twitter was suppressing the movie by flagging posts about it as hate speech and keeping the movie off lists of trending topics.
Boreing tweeted that Twitter canceled a deal to premiere 鈥淲hat is a Woman?鈥 for free on the platform 鈥渂ecause of two instances of 鈥榤isgendering.鈥" Twitter rules prohibit intentionally referring to transgender individuals with the wrong gender or name.
鈥淭his was a mistake by many people at Twitter. It is definitely allowed," Musk tweeted back. 鈥淲hether or not you agree with using someone鈥檚 preferred pronouns, not doing so is at most rude and certainly breaks no laws.鈥
Irwin tweeted Friday that 鈥渙ne or two people noticed鈥 she left the company the day before, and she noted speculation about whether she was fired or quit. She teased that she would post 24 tweets to explain her departure.
Then she posted that she was just kidding about the long narrative.
鈥淚n all seriousness, I did resign but this has been a once in a lifetime experience and I鈥檓 so thankful to have worked with this amazing team of passionate, creative and hardworking people. Will be cheering you all and Twitter as you go!鈥
Next to Musk, Irwin had been the most prominent voice of the company鈥檚 ever-changing content policies in recent months.
Twitter has struggled to bring back advertisers turned off by Musk鈥檚 drastic changes and loosening of rules against hate speech since he bought Twitter for $44 billion in October. Twitter also has an incoming CEO, Linda Yaccarino, known for decades of media and advertising industry experience, but she hasn鈥檛 started yet.
Irwin and Twitter didn鈥檛 respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment.
Twitter has been in turmoil including and voluntary departures since the billionaire Tesla owner bought the San Francisco company and took it private. The company鈥檚 head of trust and safety left shortly after the takeover, and turnover in the top ranks has continued.
