Yoel Roth, former head of Trust and Safety at Twitter, once again became the target of criticism after an excerpt from his doctoral dissertation was published in which he suggested he was in favor of children accessing dating apps.
The current CEO of the social network, Elon Musk, was the one who took it upon himself to highlight a part of the text that Roth titled "Gay Data" in 2016 when he was a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
"It looks like Yoel is arguing for children to be able to access adult Internet services," he commented next to the controversial part of the thesis.
Looks like Yoel is arguing in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services in his PhD thesis: pic.twitter.com/1NiBohjhMQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2022
In the text, Roth basically argues that dating platforms like Grindr should focus on crafting new safety strategies that include the role of safely connecting queer youth, rather than pushing them out.
However, as the Contra Newsletter media exposes, this proposal could complicate the fight against child sexual exploitation content, in addition to other consequences.
Another controversial opinion by Roth
The former head of Trust and Safety at Twitter has hinted at another controversial opinion such as adult-youth relationships.
It should be recalled that, in 2010, Roth openly asked whether high school students could consent to sex with their teachers and shared an article that addressed the risks of age of consent laws.
Can high school students ever meaningfully consent to sex with their teachers? http://bit.ly/bbpH68
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 20, 2010
Did you allow child sexual exploitation?
During Roth's tenure as former head of Trust and Safety at Twitter, the social network had serious issues related to child pornography.
In fact, a lawsuit was even filed against the media company last year. A mother alleged that Twitter profited from a video exploiting her son and another minor.
A few months ago it was also reported that the problem of proliferation of child sexual content prevented the launch of a competing program to OnlyFans that would monetize adult content on Twitter.
"Apparently, executives are well aware of the problem and the company is doing little to fix it," The Verge noted around the time.
