Elon Musk’s X names new head of safety, more than a year after former safety leader’s exit

Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Tuesday announced the hire of a new Head of Safety as it continues to face scrutiny over the spread of hateful content, conspiracy theories and other controversial content on the platform.

Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Tuesday announced it’s hiring a new head of safety as it faces ongoing scrutiny over the spread of hateful speech, conspiracy theories and other controversial content on the platform. Kylie McRoberts — a nearly four-year veteran of the company formerly known as Twitter — will oversee the company’s global safety team and work to build out a new safety hub in Austin, Texas, that CEO Linda Yaccarino announced in January. McRoberts’ elevation to the role comes more than a year after the company’s former safety leader, Yoel Roth, who oversaw what was then called the Trust and Safety team, resigned in the wake of Musk’s takeover. Since then, X has walked back safety measures, restored the accounts of White supremacists and other rule violators and declined to remove pro-Nazi content. X also announced on Tuesday that it hired Yale Cohen, a former executive at marketing firm Publicis Media, as its head of brand safety and advertising solutions. Cohen’s hire comes amid ongoing efforts at X to encourage advertisers to return to the platform. But both new leaders could face the same challenge Yaccarino has encountered in trying to revive the X brand: Musk himself. Musk has drawn ire for increasingly using his X presence to elevate radical, far-right conspiracy theories, including “Pizzagate” and the racist Great Replacement theory. In its announcement, X said McRoberts has previously worked on other X safety features including labels that inform a user if their content is being restricted. Going forward, her team will be responsible for “developing new products, tools, and features to protect our platform and community, maintaining our Safety policies, and enhancing our enforcement methodology and operations,” X said.