Thread by @emeriticus

Former Twitter trust and safety head Yoel Roth wrote in his PhD dissertation that minors should have access to hook up apps like Grindr. After people pointed out Twitter was plagued by child porn under Roth, his PhD paper was withdrawn from UPenn’s website.contra.substack.com/p/yoel-roth-ga…

First image is a Wayback Machine snapshot on December 9. Second image is the UPenn page containing Roth's PhD paper as of today.

web.archive.org/web/2022120914…

People knew about Roth's dissertation, "Gay Data," for a while. But here's an interesting timeline:

-Dec. 9, his PhD is still on the UPenn website

-Dec. 10, Elon Musk tweets an excerpt from it

-Dec. 11, it has been withdrawn from UPenn’s website

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601660414743687169?s=20&t=w52yXs5gCfWE9vOMkVWQUA

But really, the UPenn thing is just a minor, if suggestive, part of this much larger question about Twitter's approach to child sexual exploitation on the platform.

Did Roth's views on underage sex influence policy while he was head of trust and safety? We're asking questions.

Didn't include this tweet by Roth in my article because I didn't see it until later, but you can't tell me that someone like this is going to hold views of sex--including as it pertains to minors--that are consistent with the mores of most people.

https://twitter.com/yoyoel/status/250422202502107136?s=20&t=5fKx1JgWHH5xCsgksfJAMw

There's a lot of evidence showing that not only was Twitter aware of child sexual exploitation content on the platform--there's been *a lot* of it--but that the company failed to act. As trust and safety head, Roth played an important part in that failure. contra.substack.com/p/yoel-roth-ga…

If you enjoyed the article and thread, subscribe here for more. contra.substack.com/?showWelcome=t…

Twitter’s “added context” confirms my (and Musk’s) point: Roth argued in his PhD paper that minors should have access to adult services and in general believed in an “accommodation” approach to what other people would consider smut. Just look at Roth’s tweets.

Welp, Twitter has already *deleted* the “added context” note, haha