Elon Musk Had Only 4 Words After Discovering Sick Past of Twitter's Former Head of Trust and Safety

By Richard Moorhead December 10, 2022 at 4:41pm

Twitter’s former head of trust and safety once shared an article questioning laws prohibiting relationships between teachers and students.

In 2010, Yoel Roth shared a Salon article in which author Tracy Clark-Flory argued that a law criminalizing sexual relationships between students and teachers “deserves a bit more consideration.”

Can high school students ever meaningfully consent to sex with their teachers? http://bit.ly/bbpH68

— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 20, 2010

On Saturday, Twitter owner Elon Musk reacted to Roth’s 2010 tweet on the matter with four words.

“This explains a lot,” the billionaire tweeted.

This explains a lot

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2022

Musk posted an excerpt of what he claimed was Roth’s Ph.D. thesis in a follow-up tweet. The former Twitter employee appeared to suggest that minors should be allowed to use the homosexual dating app Grindr.

Looks like Yoel is arguing in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services in his PhD thesis: pic.twitter.com/1NiBohjhMQ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2022

Roth left Twitter in protest of Musk’s reforms of the service in November.

Last week, I made the decision to leave my role leading Trust & Safety at Twitter.

Today, I’m sharing a few thoughts about what comes next for the site. https://t.co/QPAQR6zpqU

— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 18, 2022

Musk has previously said Roth was the “real CEO” under Twitter’s previous ownership.

Absolutely! The real CEO was the head of “Trust & Safety”.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022

Musk also described Roth as Twitter’s “head of censorship” and highlighted a 2017 tweet from Roth in which he assailed the Trump administration as “actual Nazis in the White House.”

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