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☆ Twitter's head of brand safety and ad quality to leave
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 2 (Reuters) - Twitter's head of brand safety and ad quality, A.J. Brown, has decided to leave the company, according to a source familiar with the matter on Friday, the second safety leader to depart in a matter of days. The latest departure adds to a growing challenge for new Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, even before she steps into the role. Musk's hiring of Yaccarino, former ad chief at Comcast's NBCUniversal, signaled that ad sales remained a priority for Twitter even as it works to grow subscription revenue. Twitter and Brown did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Persons: Brown, Linda Yaccarino, Ella Irwin, Elon Musk, Comcast's NBCUniversal, Tiyashi Datta, Sheila Dang, Maju Samuel, Marguerita Choy Organizations: Reuters, Wall Street, Tesla, Twitter, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru, Dallas

☆ Twitter’s Head of Trust and Safety Resigns
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Alexa Corse | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ Twitter’s head of trust and safety says she has resigned
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

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For now, tech companies seem to view both trust and safety and AI ethics as cost centers. That included all but one member of the company's 17-person AI ethics team, according to Rumman Chowdhury, who served as director of Twitter's machine learning ethics, transparency and accountability team. Chowdhury referenced an initiative in July 2021, when Twitter's AI ethics team led what was billed as the industry's first-ever algorithmic bias bounty competition. Still, sources familiar with the matter said that following the layoffs, the company has fewer people working on misinformation issues. watch nowFor those who've gained expertise in AI ethics, trust and safety and related content moderation, the employment picture looks grim.

In a congressional hearing this week, OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, appeared to be on the same page as lawmakers: It’s time to regulate A.I. But like so many other proposals to regulate tech, will it actually happen? The Times’s technology reporter Cecilia Kang helps us understand whether Congress will actually act, and what that could look like. Then, Casey talks with Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, before and after Elon Musk took over the company.

☆ Let the guessing game begin! Elon Musk's cryptic Twitter CEO tweet drives speculation — and plenty of joke theories
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk offered few clues about Twitter's next CEO, besides that "she" will take over in weeks. The cryptic post drove plenty of people on Musk's platform to suggest possible contenders. One serious guess came from tech journalist Kara Swisher, who laid out her case and observations in a Twitter thread. An NBCUniversal spokesperson told Insider that Yaccarino was preparing for the Upfronts, an event where media companies pitch advertisers. Guesses included famous tech names, some quickly debunkedYou didn't have to look far on Twitter to see some famous tech names like Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Mayer, or Susan Wojcicki being floated.

☆ The funniest joke suggestions for Elon Musk's Twitter CEO successor, from Elizabeth Holmes to Meghan Markle
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Elon Musk announced Thursday he would be handing over the Twitter CEO role to a woman. But Twitter users have been having fun suggesting several joke candidates. Months after Twitter users voted for Elon Musk to step down as the company's CEO, the billionaire announced Thursday that he'd found someone to takeover the position. Musk tweeted. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Yaccarino is in talks to take over as Twitter CEO.

☆ Linda Yaccarino, head of advertising at NBCU, is in talks to be Twitter's next CEO: WSJ
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

NBCU's Linda Yaccarino is in talks to be Twitter's next CEO, according to The Wall Street Journal. Elon Musk announced Thursday that he had hired a new head of the social media platform. Musk tweeted this week. Linda Yaccarino, head of advertising at NBCUniversal, is in talks to be Twitter's next CEO, according to The Wall Street Journal. Yaccarino currently serves as chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCU, where she has been for more than 10 years.

Elon Musk made a surprise announcement that he'd found Twitter's next CEO. Twitter employees think they may know who Elon Musk has picked to replace himself as CEO of the social media company. Chatter from the media industry points to Linda Yaccarino, head of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal. Yaccarino has told friends in the past that she wanted to be CEO of Twitter, one person familiar with the situation said. The Wall Street Journal reported that Yaccarino is in talks to be Twitter CEO.

☆ How Singapore's giant sovereign wealth fund is investing in generative AI technology
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

As CEO of GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, he must keep the country's savings growing ahead of inflation. AI retoolingThe 2 investors were most animated when discussing the recent explosion of generative AI technology, including large language models. Chris Emanuel, head of the Technology Investment Group at GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GICThere's already a generative AI startup feeding frenzy among venture capital funds. Secondary market actionFinally, GIC is keen on doing more in the secondary market, where private stakes in startups and VC funds change hands. That means general partners, the people running VC funds, already know GIC and are more comfortable dealing with the organization, Lim explained.

☆ Twitter Criticized for Allowing Texas Shooting Images to Spread
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Benjamin Mullin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Like other social media companies, Twitter has once again found itself in a position akin to that of traditional newspaper editors, who wrestle with difficult decisions about how much to show their audiences. Unlike newspaper and magazine publishers, however, tech companies like Twitter must enforce their decisions on a huge scale, policing millions of users with a combination of automated systems and human content moderators. Other tech companies like Facebook’s parent, Meta, and YouTube’s parent, Alphabet, have invested in large teams that reduce the spread of violent images on their platforms. Twitter, on the other hand, has scaled back its content moderation since Mr. Musk bought the site late last October, laying off full-time employees and contractors on the trust and safety teams that manage content moderation. Graphic content was never completely banned by Twitter, even before Mr. Musk took over.

☆ TikTok advertisers stick by the app amid threat of U.S. ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

May 4 (Reuters) - Advertisers are committed to continue spending on TikTok due to its immense popularity with users despite threats of a potential ban in the U.S. over national security concerns, ad experts said. The short-form video app has already been banned from government-issued phones in multiple countries. Two media buyers at two different major ad agencies told Reuters that Washington's scrutiny over the app had yet to impact their clients' plans on TikTok. Still, several media buyers acknowledged the threat of a U.S. ban would be the "elephant in the room" during the advertiser presentation. TikTok said it is addressing advertiser concerns "head on in an open, fact-based and ongoing dialogue."

☆ Elon Musk has chopped Twitter down to about 1,000 employees
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In six months of ownership, Elon Musk has whittled Twitter's employee count down by close to 90%. Current headcount for full-time employees at Twitter is around 1,000 people, according to two people familiar with the company who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. Getting closer to 1,000 workers means Twitter's headcount is down by almost 90% from just before Musk took over, when the company had roughly 7,500 employees. More frequently, employees at Musk's Twitter are fired or let go piecemeal with little to no explanation after sending in weekly reports of their work for review, the people familiar said. The former CEO has also admitted that he hired too many employees at Twitter when he ran it.

☆ TikTok's head of U.S. trust and safety will leave the company
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TikTok has long said that it has never shared data with the Chinese government and would not do so if asked. Han, who has been at TikTok since 2019, oversaw efforts like improving content moderation and reducing election misinformation. He ran trust and safety for the company's U.S. Data Security (USDS), a division that was created to store U.S. data in the country on servers controlled by Oracle, in an effort to appease security concerns. His upcoming departure also comes as TikTok is preparing to hold a presentation for advertisers in New York on Thursday. Reporting by Sheila Dang in New York; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ A 13-year-old boy was groomed publicly on Twitter and kidnapped, despite numerous chances to stop it
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Ben Goggin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +19 min

On the Hunter Fox Twitter account, the adult interacted directly with the boy's account, where he posted selfies of himself on a school bus and in other locations. Their teen son had plenty of friends, his parents said, and liked to play golf and build Legos. Heather McConney's teen son communicated with the man accused of grooming him through an Apple iPhone. The suspect's primary Twitter account appears to have been @HunterFloofyFox. After the worst day of their lives, the McConneys' son was recovered early on the morning of Dec. 28 in Nebraska.

☆ How Anthropic cofounder Daniela Amodei plans to turn trust and safety into a feature, not a bug
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Amodei chatted with Insider about her approach to trust and safety and what the future holds for AI. However, the majority of Anthropic cofounder and president Daniela Amodei's career has been spent trying to prove the opposite: that trust and safety is a feature, not a bug. "It's an organizational structure question, but it's also a mindset question," she told Insider. In 2020, Amodei and six other OpenAI employees, including her brother Dario Amodei, left the company to start rival AI lab Anthropic. Throughout Anthropic's growth, the company has kept an interdisciplinary culture, with employees whose experiences range from physics to computational biology to policywriting, Amodei told Insider.

☆ Companies will have to scale up resources in trust and safety areas for A.I., says Rob Leathern
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCompanies will have to scale up resources in trust and safety areas for A.I., says Rob LeathernRob Leathern, former Google vice president of product management and former Meta senior director of product and business integrity, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss A.I. regulation, the need for transparency in A.I. development, and more.

☆ Facebook depends on local partners to flag hateful content. In Ethiopia, those partners say they were ignored.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Tekendra Parmar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +31 min

Trusted partners say warnings were ignoredInsider spoke with six current and former trusted partners from Ethiopia who said that Facebook routinely ignored their pleas to take down content that they deemed hateful or likely to incite violence. Some of the trusted partners declined to be named because they've faced death threats and fear for their own safety. Multiple trusted partners in Ethiopia said hate speech is still proliferating on the platform. Rafiq Copeland, a senior adviser at InterNews, one of Meta's longest-standing trusted partners globally, told Insider that the core complaints of trusted partners in Ethiopia have come up in other Rest of World countries. Even in Addis Ababa, it seemed that everyone knew about the Facebook posts, and many people now saw him as a traitor.

☆ Tech layoffs raise new alarms about how platforms protect users
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Some also formed ethical AI teams and invested in oversight groups. And Facebook-parent Meta suggested that it might cut staff working in non-technical roles as part of its latest round of layoffs. “With that outsourcing, I feel like they had this comfort level that they could cut some of the trust and safety team, but Twitch is very unique,” the former employee said. It invested heavily in content moderation, public policy and an oversight board to weigh in on tricky content issues to address rising concerns about its platform. Tech leaders may also be grappling with the fact that even as they built up their trust and safety teams in recent years, their reputation problems haven’t really abated.

☆ TikTok hearing: CEO Shou Chew to testify before Congress for the first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

TikTok CEO Shou Chew will face the House Energy and Commerce Committee during his first appearance before Congress, in a hearing that kicks off at 10 a.m. In his prepared remarks, Chew is expected to issue broad promises to protect US user data, to keep teens safe and to remain free from any government influence. As scrutiny from lawmakers’ mounts, however, so does the app’s popularity and reach in the United States. TikTok was the top downloaded app in the United States in 2021 and 2022, according to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower. In the months leading up to his appearance on Capitol Hill, Chew, who rarely gave interviews previously, has gone on a media tour in the United States.

☆ TikTok CEO to tell lawmakers its parent company is ‘not an agent of China’
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —TikTok CEO Shou Chew plans to tell US lawmakers that the app’s parent company, ByteDance, does not work for the Chinese government as he seeks to avert a US ban and reassure policymakers TikTok poses no national security threat. “Let me state this unequivocally,” Chew will say, according to a copy of his remarks released by a key House panel. New TikTok data created by US users is already being stored on cloud-based servers operated by the US tech giant Oracle, a change that took effect last month, according to the testimony. USDS already has nearly 1,500 full-time employees and the company plans to hire more. Chew plans to describe the incident as a “misguided attempt to trace the source of a leak of confidential TikTok information.” TikTok informed the Energy and Commerce Committee about the spying “within moments of informing our employees,” Chew will add.

☆ The fund that just bought Pornhub owner MindGeek won't say who's running the company due to 'unfortunate stigma,' report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The private equity firm that acquired Pornhub's parent company won't reveal who's running MindGeek. Ethical Capital Partners told the Financial Times it won't yet identify MindGeek's executives. The new owner says it's keeping their names under wraps because of "stigma" about the porn industry. It details how a New York Times op-ed in December 2020 that accused Pornhub of hosting child porn sparked public outrage. CTV News reported that Tassillo told the hearing: "I truly believe, in my heart of hearts, that we are the safest adult platform in the world right now."

☆ French minister to raise protection of minors with Pornhub's new owners
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PARIS, March 17 (Reuters) - A French government minister will meet the new owners of the pornography website Pornhub to ensure minors are protected and that the site does not break any laws, he said on his Twitter account on Friday. Earlier this week, Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners said it had bought MindGeek, which has faced complaints over Pornhub's content. MindGeek said it would work with Ethical Capital Partners (ECP) on matters of trust and safety with regulators. "We have spoken with the partners at ECP. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Eva Mathews; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ YouTube lifts restrictions on Trump's account
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Google -owned YouTube will allow former President Donald Trump's account to post new videos as of Friday, lifting restrictions put in place following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In 2021, then-YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said Trump's restrictions would be lifted when it believed the risk of real-world violence had subsided. The account was not terminated from the site, but could not upload new videos under the restrictions. The company also noted that Trump's posts on YouTube tend to differ from those on other platforms, often including reuploads from news networks. As of Friday, Trump's YouTube account has more than 2.6 million subscribers.

☆ EU tells Elon Musk to hire more staff to moderate Twitter - FT
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 7 (Reuters) - The European Union told Elon Musk to hire more human moderators and fact-checkers to review posts on Twitter, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing four people familiar with talks between Musk, Twitter executives and regulators in Brussels. The demand complicates Musk's efforts to reorganize the loss-making business he acquired for $44 billion in October. Twitter has been leaning heavily on automation to moderate content, doing away with certain manual reviews. It does not employ fact checkers, unlike larger rival Meta Platforms Inc (META.O), which owns Facebook and Instagram, the report said. European Union industry chief Thierry Breton on a video call in January warned Musk of "huge work ahead" for Twitter to apply transparent use policies, significantly reinforce content moderation and protect freedom of speech.

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