X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, has announced the hiring of a new head of safety in response to ongoing scrutiny over the spread of controversial content on the platform. Kylie McRoberts, a former Twitter employee, will oversee the global safety team and help build a new safety hub in Austin, Texas. This move comes more than a year after the previous safety leader resigned following Musk’s takeover of the company. Since then, X has faced criticism for walking back safety measures, restoring accounts of rule violators, and not removing pro-Nazi content.
In addition to McRoberts, X has also hired Yale Cohen as the head of brand safety and advertising solutions to help bring advertisers back to the platform. However, both new leaders may face challenges in dealing with Musk’s own controversial behavior on the platform. Musk has come under fire for promoting radical, far-right conspiracy theories on X, which has tarnished the platform’s reputation. This poses a challenge for the new safety team in maintaining a safe and inclusive environment for users.
McRoberts has experience working on safety features at X, including content restriction labels. Her team will focus on developing new products, tools, and features to protect the platform and enhance safety policies and enforcement. Yaccarino, X’s CEO, testified before a Senate committee on safety issues and emphasized the company’s commitment to trust, safety, and content moderation. X currently has around 2,300 people working on trust and safety, though it is unclear if all of them are full-time employees.
McRoberts’ background in privacy and cybersecurity roles at Google suggests a shift in focus towards safety that is less centered on content moderation, which Musk has criticized in the past. Musk has expressed a preference for changing the name of X’s Trust and Safety team to simply the Safety team, highlighting a belief that trust should be earned and that the main goal of the team should be compliance with existing laws rather than censorship. This change reflects Musk’s vision for a more open and transparent approach to safety on the platform.
Overall, X’s new safety team faces the challenge of balancing free speech with the need to protect users from harmful and hateful content. With Musk’s controversial presence on the platform and ongoing scrutiny over safety measures, the new hires will play a crucial role in shaping the future of X. By developing innovative safety features and enforcing policies to combat harmful content, the team aims to create a safer and more inclusive environment for all users on the platform.
