Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety at Twitter, has penned a guest essay for The New York Times, offering a sobering warning about the future of social media as safeguards are dismantled. Roth’s essay, published on Monday, sheds light on the harassment campaign he endured, fueled by figures like Donald Trump and Elon Musk, during his tenure at Twitter and how this campaign is indicative of broader trends in the online world.
During his time at Twitter, Roth played a pivotal role in adding a fact check label to one of Donald Trump’s tweets. This move made him a public figure and subjected him to intense harassment. Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to the White House at the time, publicly identified him as the head of Twitter’s site integrity team, leading to an onslaught of online harassment. Roth details how he faced months of relentless attacks, including calls for his firing, imprisonment, and even death.
Backed by fans on social media, Mr. Trump publicly attacked me. Two years later, following his acquisition of Twitter and after I resigned my role as the company’s head of trust and safety, Elon Musk added fuel to the fire. I’ve lived with armed guards outside my home and have had to upend my family, go into hiding for months and repeatedly move.
This isn’t a story I relish revisiting. But I’ve learned that what happened to me wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t just personal vindictiveness or “cancel culture.” It was a strategy — one that affects not just targeted individuals like me, but all of us, as it is rapidly changing what we see online.
Years later, after leaving Twitter, Elon Musk targeted Roth by taking a paragraph from his Ph.D. dissertation out of context, baselessly accusing him of condoning pedophilia. This accusation prompted an even more extreme wave of threats and harassment, including threats of violence.
Roth’s essay underscores a broader concern about the state of social media platforms and their ability to maintain moral leadership and enforce regulations. He argues that social media platforms are facing concerted efforts to weaponize them for the spread of hate, division, and recruitment for authoritarian causes. Roth points out that tech platforms are retreating from their efforts to protect election security and combat online disinformation. Economic factors and external pressures have contributed to a reduction in trust and safety efforts.
The essay serves as a cautionary tale about the challenges faced by platforms like Twitter in striking a balance between free speech and safeguarding against harmful content. It highlights the need for comprehensive approaches to online regulation and the importance of resisting efforts to undermine the moderation and safety measures crucial for healthy online discourse.
