Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, speaks with CNBC on May 16th, 2023.David A. Grogan | CNBCThe sudden departure of Twitter executives tasked with content moderation and brand safety has left the company more vulnerable than ever to hate speech.On Thursday, Twitter’s vice president of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, resigned from the company. Following Irwin’s departure, the company’s head of brand safety and ad quality, A.J. Brown, reportedly left, as did Maie Aiyed, a program manager who worked on brand-safety partnerships.It’s been just over seven months since Elon Musk closed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, an investment that has so far been a giant money loser. Musk has dramatically downsized the company’s workforce and rolled back policies that restricted what kinds of content could circulate. In response, numerous brands suspended or decreased their advertising spending, as several civil rights groups have documented.Twitter, under Musk, is the fourth most-hated brand in the U.S., according to the 2023 Axios Harris reputation rankings.The controversy surrounding Musk’s control of Twitter continues to build.This week, Musk said that it’s not against Twitter’s terms of service to misgender trans people on the platform. He said doing so is merely “rude” but not illegal.” LGB …
