As mass layoffs and resignations rock Twitter following billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover, reports have emerged that Lea Kissner, the chief information security officer, and Yoel Roth, the head of integrity and safety, have departed, vacating two of the most critical positions at the leading social media firm.
A company lawyer has even warned of billions of dollars in fine from regulators in the wake of Musk’s controversial decisions that could jeopardise both Twitter employees and users.
“I’ve made the hard decision to leave Twitter,” former CISO Kissner confirmed. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with amazing people and I’m so proud of the privacy, security, and IT teams and the work we’ve done.”
I've made the hard decision to leave Twitter. I've had the opportunity to work with amazing people and I'm so proud of the privacy, security, and IT teams and the work we've done.
I'm looking forward to figuring out what's next, starting with my reviews for @USENIXSecurity 😁
— Lea Kissner (@LeaKissner) November 10, 2022
Besides Kissner and Roth, Damien Kieran, the chief privacy officer, and Marianne Fogarty, the chief compliance officer, also tendered their resignations this week. The departures of key leaders heading crucial security and privacy teams have only added to the turmoil at Twitter, with more resignations expected in the coming weeks as one of the world’s most influential social media company grapples with mass sackings and the new owner’s turbulent decisions.
In a Slack note viewed by various news publications, an employee associated with Twitter’s legal team warned the staffers that Musk’s disregard for rules could land the firm in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
“Elon has shown that his only priority with Twitter users is how to monetize them,” the lawyer wrote. “I do not believe he cares about the human rights activists. the dissidents, our users in non-monetizable regions, and all the other users who have made Twitter the global town square you have all spent so long building, and we all love.”
The lawyer claimed they “heard Alex Spiro (current head of Legal) say that Elon is willing to take on a huge amount of risk in relation to this company and its users, because ‘Elon puts rockets into space, he’s not afraid of the FTC.’”
The message further stated that Musk’s only priority is to “recoup the losses he’s incurring as a result of failing to get out of his binding obligation to buy Twitter”. It is important to note here that Musk had attempted to walk away from his proposed $44 billion deal, and revived the acquisition just weeks before he was going to appear in court in a lawsuit slapped on him by Twitter for his failure to close the deal.
Musk has attracted widespread scrutiny over the nature of changes he plans to enforce across the platform. Since acquiring Twitter for $44 billion on October 27 in a surprise move, Musk has prompted a number of top executives to resign with his radical decisions that could put both Twitter and its users at risk. Criticism mounted after the billionaire sacked the human rights team and launched a crackdown on parody accounts, leaving members of other teams, users, rights activists, and tech experts concerned about the future of the right to expression on the platform.
