On with Kara Swisher The Yoel Roth-Linda Yaccarino Showdown
Sep 28, 2023
Yoel Roth, former head of trust and safety at Twitter/X and now a visiting scholar at UPenn, delves into the complexities of online safety and misinformation. Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, discusses her strategic vision for the platform, emphasizing free expression and user engagement. The podcast captures the tension between their perspectives, particularly around advertising losses and the challenge of navigating public perception. Personal anecdotes reveal the emotional toll of leadership, making this a captivating clash of ideas in the evolving tech landscape.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Initial Praise, Subsequent Disagreements
- Yoel Roth was initially praised by Elon Musk for his understanding of trust and safety at Twitter.
- However, Roth left a month later due to disagreements over policy changes, like Blue Verification, which overrode his team's advice and failed as predicted.
Reasons for Leaving Twitter
- Yoel Roth left Twitter because of the overwhelming pressure to change its operations, leading to personal costs for decisions made against his and his team’s advice.
- He predicted advertisers, regulators, and app stores would constrain Twitter, but the platform acted irrationally, not in its self-interest.
Dictatorial Edict vs. Policy
- Yoel Roth refused to lie and left Twitter when it started being ruled by "dictatorial edict" rather than policy.
- He saw the directive to change the logged-out experience, despite lacking a clear rationale, as a warning sign of Twitter's changing operational style.