reader comments 92 X has named a new head of safety about nine months after Ella Irwin resigned last June, following Elon Musk's criticism of Irwin's team's decision to restrict a transphobic documentary. Shortly after Irwin left, former head of brand safety AJ Brown similarly resigned. And that regime notably took over where former safety chief Yoel Roth—who also clashed with Musk—left off.
Stepping into the safety chief role next is Kylie McRoberts, who was promoted after leading X "initiatives to increase transparency in our moderation practices through labels" and "improve security with passkeys," X's announcement said.
As head of safety, McRoberts will oversee X's global safety team, which was rebranded last month to drop "trust" from its name. On X, Musk had said that "any organization that puts ‘Trust’ in their name cannot [be] trusted, as that is obviously a euphemism for censorship."
"We are changing the name of our Trust & Safety group, to simply @Safety,” Musk wrote. “Trust is something that must be earned. The goal of our Safety team is simply to ensure compliance with the laws that already exist to protect the people.”
AdvertisementAccording to CNN, McRoberts came from Google, where she worked on "safe web browsing efforts," potentially suggesting that under her leadership, the Safety team will be "less focused on content moderation" than prior trust and safety regimes.
On X, some users criticized McRoberts for seeming to lack transparency already, though, suggesting that she had deleted her LinkedIn profile and set her X profile to private, making it harder to learn more about her background.
Why does X's new head of Safety, Kylie McRoberts, take her profile provide? https://t.co/fLO7vvuJk9
— @amuse (@amuse)
How safe does X new head of Safety @mcroberts_kylie feel on X if she has her posts protected? Is Kylie McRoberts afraid of the 'town square'? @lindayaX pic.twitter.com/NldnRJXpb5
— Nancy Levine Stearns ✍️ (@nancylevine)
X's announcement didn't mention content moderation specifically but said that McRoberts will be charged with "developing new products, tools, and features to protect our platform and community, maintaining our Safety policies, and enhancing our enforcement methodology and operations." In a company-wide note, X CEO Linda Yaccarino stressed to X staff that the Safety team would be charged with defending freedom of speech on the platform, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"When we say safety and freedom of speech can and must coexist on X—we mean it," Yaccarino said. "And the Safety team works tirelessly, day and night, across the globe to make that happen."
However, it's clear that McRoberts' Safety team will be focused on at least some efforts to step up content moderation. X credited McRoberts for "building out" X's Safety Center of Excellence in Austin, Texas. X announced the new center in January, confirming plans to hire 100 content moderators mostly focused on removing child sexual exploitation materials from the platform, Bloomberg reported.
In January, Yaccarino told a Senate committee that "X has around 2,300 people who work on trust and safety and content moderation," CNN reported, although Yaccarino did not specify whether those workers worked full-time.
On X, Yaccarino appeared most enthusiastic about welcoming a different X Safety team member, Yale Cohen, who was hired as head of brand safety and advertiser solutions. Cohen has seemingly been charged with helping X woo back advertisers to the platform after many major brands left in 2023.
"X keeps making extraordinary industry progress!" Yaccarino wrote on X. "Our Safety Team works tirelessly to enhance the platform and create a superior and secure experience for everyone—users and advertisers! Welcome Yale."
According to Bloomberg, X ad revenue dropped by about 50 percent last year after X changed its safety standards to limit the reach of offensive posts instead of removing content.
As X defended its new policies, it began suing groups monitoring hate speech on the platform. Recently, one of those lawsuits against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) was dismissed, with a judge accusing X of censoring CCDH's speech. Another lawsuit against Media Matters for America remains ongoing, with X intent on pinning advertising revenue losses on platform researchers rather than on Musk's own controversial posting and X policy changes.
AdvertisementCohen formerly led global digital standards efforts at Publicis Media, where his LinkedIn said he established "a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry." X's announcement touted new levels of advertiser controls that Cohen would help brands use "that largely did not exist a year ago."
Cohen's team, X said, "will continue to ensure a safe advertising experience for customers and brands on X."
Bringing back advertisers may be challenging for Cohen. Although Musk claimed in an interview with Don Lemon that "almost all advertisers are returning to X," The Wall Street Journal reported, he "didn’t provide actual numbers" to substantiate claims that "advertising and subscription revenues are rising."
And since then, Musk has continued to take jabs at advertisers who he seems to blame for censoring speech on his platform. On April Fools' Day, Musk joked that he was "excited to join Disney as their chief DEI officer" to help "make their content MORE woke!" Last year, Musk began beefing with Disney CEO Bob Iger after the brand paused X ads, seeming to direct aggressive comments at Iger at a conference, including saying, "go fuck yourself."
At that conference, Musk antagonized all advertisers who were uneasy about changes at X (formerly Twitter), saying, "Don't advertise." More recently, Musk seemed to continue that effort by posting on X that he still hoped to pivot X's reliance away from advertising by generating more revenue through subscriptions.
"Subscribing is the only way to ensure that major brand advertisers cannot demand censorship of this platform," Musk wrote.
