Twitter’s top global policy official departs as layoffs continue

Twitter Inc’s public coverage chief has left the corporate amid extra layoffs to the unit on Thursday, sources conversant in the matter advised Reuters, as billionaire proprietor Elon Musk continues to slash prices.

Sinead McSweeney, international vp for public coverage, has left Twitter, in keeping with two sources. McSweeney’s departure has not been beforehand reported.

The layoffs and departures of a high-ranking chief comes as regulators across the globe query Twitter’s content material moderation work and safety of consumer knowledge after Musk reduce the employees from greater than 7,000 to beneath 2,000.

The public coverage group is accountable for interacting with lawmakers and civil society on points together with free speech, privateness and on-line security.

It handles requests from governments and civil rights teams to take away problematic content material and units guidelines to guard susceptible customers. With fewer employees, backlogs may enhance and a few insurance policies in improvement may very well be ignored, one of many sources mentioned.

Nick Pickles, senior director for international public coverage technique, has taken over McSweeney’s position, the 2 sources mentioned.

McSweeney, Pickles, Musk and Twitter didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Last month, European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton advised Musk the platform faces “huge work ahead” to adjust to European rules on content material moderation, eradicating disinformation and limiting focused promoting.

The EU will conduct a “stress test” at Twitter’s headquarters early subsequent 12 months to evaluate compliance.

A senior German official mentioned on Thursday that the EU ought to straight monitor Twitter as a result of its erratic conduct beneath Musk posed a menace to free speech.

One supply advised Reuters that half of the 30 remaining members of Twitter’s public coverage group had been reduce on Wednesday, implying 15 individuals had been laid off.

The layoffs had been first reported by The Information.

Media stories this week mentioned McSweeney, who is predicated in Dublin, settled with Twitter after successful a brief courtroom injunction to cease the corporate from firing her after she didn’t reply to a company-wide electronic mail from Musk demanding that staff conform to a “hardcore” tradition or go away.

Musk mentioned Wednesday that Twitter was going through a “negative cash flow situation of $3 billion” subsequent 12 months and was the rationale why he has moved to aggressively reduce prices.

Reporting by Fanny Potkin and Paresh Dave; Writing by Sheila Dang; Editing by Kenneth Li and Josie Kao