Elon Musk Fires Twitter Election Integrity Team After Pledging To Grow It
Less than a month after pledging to expand the safety and elections teams at X, formerly known as Twitter, Elon Musk has instead slashed the workforce.
The Information reported Wednesday that half the global team had been cut, including the head of the election integrity team, Dublin-based Aaron Rodericks. At least four people have been let go; it’s unclear how many remain.
In related but separate news, the site has also quietly removed a feature that allowed users in some locations to report election misinformation.
Musk appeared to confirm the report Wednesday night, posting, “Oh, you mean the ‘Election Integrity’ Team that was undermining election integrity? Yeah, they’re gone.”
Musk didn’t elaborate on the incendiary claim, and evidence suggests Rodericks’ firing may be retaliatory.
Rodericks had been the subject of a recent disciplinary process at X because, he believes, he’d “liked” posts from his personal account that were critical of Musk and new X CEO Linda Yaccarino.
An Irish court last week awarded Rodericks a temporary injunction against the company, barring it from moving forward with what Rodericks’ lawyers described as a “preordained” and flawed process.
Wednesday’s layoffs likely surprised Yaccarino, who told the Financial Times in an interview that the company was expanding the team.
The move coincides with a damning 200-page E.U. report this week that found X has the highest ratio of disinformation among all the major social media platforms, followed by Facebook.
