Three of Twitter’s top security, safety and privacy executives have resigned, adding to what has been a chaotic two-week run since Elon Musk took control of the company.
Twitter’s chief information security officer and chief compliance officer resigned late Wednesday as the company began implementing changes that would make it easier for users to impersonate big brands and government officials.
The departure came just hours before Musk sent his first email to Twitter employees, titled “tough times ahead” and enacted a mandatory return policy.
Later Thursday, Twitter’s head of trust and security, Yoel Roth, also resigned, according to a person familiar with the situation who requested that they remain unnamed as they were not authorized to speak on internal company matters.
Roth had emerged as a leading voice at the company since the Musk acquisition over its continued moderation efforts and work to curb a rise in hate speech. Musk has publicly vouched for Roth several times in recent weeks.
Lea Kissner, the Chief Information Security Officer, confirmed they had left in a Twitter post Thursday morning. Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty has also left the company, according to a person familiar with the situation and asked to remain unnamed as they were not authorized to speak publicly.
“I don’t watch Game of Thrones. I definitely don’t want to play it at work,” Fogarty tweeted Monday.
A spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission said in an emailed statement that it is monitoring the situation.
“We are following recent developments at Twitter with great concern,” the spokesperson wrote. “No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decisions. Our revised consent brief gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are ready to use them.”
On Wednesday, Twitter introduced the new Twitter Blue, which allows any user to purchase a verification badge for $7.99 per month as long as they log in to Twitter by November 9. As feared by cybersecurity professionals, users immediately used the pay-to-play feature to impersonate public figures and brands. A user posing as LeBron James demanded a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers.
The layoffs add to what has been two chaotic weeks with Musk at the helm of Twitter, where he recently said: the company “will do a lot of stupid things in the coming months.”
“We will keep what works and change what doesn’t work,” he added.
In the hours following the announcement of the departure, some employees speculated in the company’s Slack chat and private messages seen by NBC News that the company’s layoff and recent move to quickly send features could be at risk. action by the FTC, which has previously fined the company and accused the company of deceptive practices. As part of the settlement with the FTC and the Department of Justice, Twitter agreed to “implement robust compliance measures to protect users’ data privacy,” the DOJ said in the settlement announcement.
After the rollout of the paid verification feature on Wednesday, an employee told NBC News they were staying with the company to prevent their department from “derailing.”
The employee compared Musk’s management style to creating new policies by first tweeting about it publicly to that of the Trump White House, saying he sets new rules on the site “through a Tweet edict,” then forcing employees to enforce them from then on.
David Ingram contributed.