A former top Twitter executive was forced to flee his home because of threats made against him after he was publicly smeared by the company’s new owner Elon Musk, according to a report.
The billionaire falsely claimed that Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, is an advocate for child sexualization and posted excerpts of his doctoral dissertation.
Mr Roth, an openly gay Jewish man, resigned from the company in November following Mr Musk’s $44bn purchase of the platform, and following the new owner’s release of the “Twitter Files” has faced online attacks and threats of violence, says CNN.
Mr Roth’s job at Twitter involved him working on a string of highly sensitive issues, including the suspension of one-term president Donald Trump in the wake of his supporters attacking the US Capitol.
Mr Musk was initially supportive of Mr Roth, but has publicly criticised him since he left the company. And this took a further step when Mr Musk tweeted part of Mr Roth’s 2016 PhD dissertation from the University of Pennsylvania, entitled “Gay Data.”
Mr Musk’s initial posts about Mr Roth came in response to a tweet from an anti-child-trafficking activist known as Eliza Bleu, who has long accused Twitter of turning a blind eye to child abuse.
“I think I may have found the problem @ElonMusk,” Bleu said, sharing a tweet from Roth in 2010 that asked: “Can high school students ever meaningfully consent to sex with their teachers?”
Mr Musk replied to Bleu claiming “this explains a lot”, before posting a screenshot from Roth’s 2016 PhD thesis Gay Data. “Looks like Yoel is arguing in favour of children being able to access adult Internet services,” Mr Musk added.
The paper was written about LGBTQ+ networking app Grindr, with Mr Roth advocating that places like it should become safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people under the age of 18, reports Insider.
A person familiar with the situation told CNN that the threats being made against Mr Roth “escalated exponentially” after Mr Musk’s tweets.
