Former Twitter Employee Reportedly Flees His Home Over ‘Threats’ After Musk Suggested He Sexualized Children
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Yoel Roth, the former head of Twitter’s trust and safety division, has reportedly left his home after Elon Musk baselessly suggested he wants to sexualize children.
CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan cited a person familiar with the situation and said “an escalation in threats” prompted Roth to flee his home.
Roth has become a whipping post for conservatives after Musk selectively released files showing Roth’s internal communications regarding various accounts potentially violating Twitter’s terms of service. Conservatives claim Roth and the company were biased against them.
On Saturday, Musk suggested Roth has a sexual predilection for kids.
The Twitter CEO replied to a user who quote-tweeted a Salon article Roth shared on Twitter in 2010. Roth’s tweet posed a question, “Can high school students ever meaningfully consent to sex with their teachers?”
The article highlights the case of a 33-year-old teacher who was criminally charged for having sex with an 18-year-old student.
“I think I may have found the problem,” a user tweeted at Musk while highlighting Roth’s 12-year-old tweet.
“This explains a lot,” Musk replied before adding another tweet.
“Looks like Yoel is arguing in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services in his PhD thesis,” Musk wrote.
The Twitter CEO posted a screenshot purportedly from Roth’s thesis where he stated that dating apps “may well be too lewd or too hook-up-oriented to be a safe and age-appropriate resource for teenagers; but the fact that people under 18 are on these services already indicates that we can’t readily dismiss these platforms out of hand as loci for queer youth culture.”
Later on Saturday, Musk replied to a tweet that called Roth a “creep.” It also claimed he “sympathized with teachers having sex with students.” The tweet asked how Roth became head of Twitter’s trust and safety department.
“Good question,” Musk replied, tacitly assenting to the claims made in the tweet.
CNN reported that Roth, who is Jewish and gay, “has in recent weeks faced a storm of attacks and threats of violence following the release of the so-called ‘Twitter Files’ — internal Twitter communications that new owner Musk has released through journalists including Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss.”
Roth resigned from the company in November.
It’s not the first time Musk has suggested someone he disfavors views children in a sexual manner. In 2018, he called a cave diver in Thailand a “pedo guy” on Twitter after the man criticized Musk’s ill-conceived plan to rescue boys trapped in a cave.
