The top content moderation deputy to Elon Musk has abruptly departed Twitter following a fiasco involving the company’s initial decision to backtrack on a free offering of the documentary “What is a Woman?” and limit its reach among followers.
Ella Irwin, the company’s former top official for safety and content moderation, drafted her resignation Thursday in the hours following Musk’s decision to reverse the company’s position on the documentary. The CEO claimed the documentary, which explores America’s ongoing debate around transgender accommodations, does not violate the company’s hateful speech policy as previously stated. Irwin likely made the executive decision to limit the documentary’s reach based on several scenes involving “misgendering,” or the deliberate use of pronouns that do not conform to a person’s preferred gender.
Irwin did not comment on her resignation when asked by the Wall Street Journal, which first reported her ouster.
“What is a Woman?” lays out questions by skeptics of the gender rights movement who fear that pressure to accommodate a person’s preferred gender across every facet of public life has led to devastating consequences for female athletes and students. Following the policy reversal by Musk, Twitter aired the documentary for free Thursday in honor of its one-year anniversary, however, users quickly pointed out that the post containing the film could not be liked or retweeted, limiting its reach.
Irwin, who came into her role roughly a year ago, was brought on board by Musk to help police harmful speech which targeted users and raised questions about whether leadership was doing enough to prevent abuse on its platform. Irwin defended Musk’s decision-making on several occasions, saying her team was permitted to give priority to safety over user engagement while “keeping people safe from ongoing, repeated harassment,” she tweeted in April.