Elon Musk 'Blew Up My Life,' Says Ex-Twitter Exec, Criticizing Billionaire's Move To Reinstate Account Sharing Child Exploitation Content

A former executive of Twitter, now rebranded as “X,” has condemned Elon Musk’s move to reinstate an account that shared child exploitation content on the platform. 

What Happened: Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, took a dig at Musk’s decision to reinstate an account that had posted child abuse content. 

On the social media site BlueSky, Roth posted, “It’s insane to write ‘we have zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation’ while also arbitrarily reinstating accounts that share CSAM,” referring to child abuse material.

See Also: From ‘Twitter’ To ‘X’ — Musk Reveals Reasoning Behind The Bold Rebranding Move

The account in question belonged to Dominick McGee, who tweets under the handle “Dom Lucre” and is known for his popularity among far-right conservative circles and QAnon conspiracy theorists. 

McGee had posted an image that appeared to violate Twitter’s policy on child exploitation material. He expressed frustration with the mainstream media’s portrayal of the incident, saying, “It’s unfair but it is what it is,” reported The Washington Post. 

The image was reportedly taken from a video made by Peter Scully, an Australian man sentenced to life in prison plus 129 years in the Philippines for abusing children as young as 18 months old, as well as for human trafficking.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Musk stated that the account had been “suspended for posting child exploitation pictures.” 

Why It’s Important: Roth, who had worked on Twitter’s trust and safety team for over seven years, found Musk’s decision perplexing. He said, he had previously faced accusations from Musk, forcing him to flee his home after Musk implied in tweets that Roth “condoned” pedophilia. 

Roth’s trust in Musk wavered after Musk acquired Twitter. Despite trying to assure people about the platform’s safety under Musk’s leadership, Roth eventually resigned, expressing concerns about the company’s ability to moderate effectively with a reduced workforce.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.

Read Next: Twitter’s iPhone Update: Farewell Bird, Hello’ X’ — A Haphazard Makeover, says Mark Gurman

Photo: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons