SAN FRANCISCO — A senior attorney at Twitter tendered his resignation Thursday, four people familiar with the matter said, becoming the latest in a string of executives to leave the company since Elon Musk took over nearly six months ago.
The lawyer, Christian Dowell, rose to the top of Twitter’s legal department in recent months after the company’s legal chiefs resigned or was fired by Mr Musk. Mr. Dowell was heavily involved in Twitter’s recent negotiations with the Federal Trade Commission, two people familiar with those discussions said.
The FTC, which currently oversees Twitter, is investigating claims by a former executive that the company has had security vulnerabilities. The commission accelerated its investigation after the sudden resignation of three Twitter executives responsible for privacy, security and compliance. They left Twitter in November, shortly after Musk acquired the company.
The agency’s investigation into Twitter has intensified in recent months, examining whether the company has the resources to deliver on its privacy promises following mass layoffs and layoffs.
Mr. Dowell did not respond to a request for comment. Mr Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Elon Musk’s Twitter
- To change the Twitter experience: Nearly six months after buying Twitter, Elon Musk has made tweaks that have changed what people see and interact with on the platform.
- Targeting Substack: After the newsletter service announced it was building a Twitter competitor, Twitter took steps to prevent Substack newsletters from circulating on its platform.
- Senior Lawyer Resigns: Christian Dowell, who had risen to the top of Twitter’s legal department, became the latest in a string of executives to leave the company since Musk took over.
- A new label for NPR: Twitter added a label to the public radio network’s account on the platform, labeled “U.S. state media.” NPR denounced the move as “unacceptable”.
Mr. Musk has been trying to meet with some FTC commissioners in recent months to discuss the investigation, two people familiar with his efforts said. Only Christine Wilson, the outgoing Republican commissioner, accepted his request. Mr. Dowell coordinated Twitter’s responses to the FTC’s questions and participated in organizing the meeting, those people said.
Ms Wilson resigned from her position last Friday. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed about her decision to step down, she said that Lina Khan, the FTC chair, “disregarded the rule of law and due process and the way senior FTC officials empower her.”
Mr. Dowell joined Twitter in 2020 after stints at Q&A site Quora and Facebook, focusing on product issues before being promoted in December, becoming Twitter’s head of legal oversight for product.
Mr Dowell’s departure follows a spate of exits by legal and compliance executives at the social media company. On the day Mr. Musk closed his deal for Twitter in late October, he fired Vijaya Gadde, then the company’s chief legal officer, and his general counsel, Sean Edgett.
In December, Mr. Musk James A. Baker, a Twitter attorney and former FBI general counsel, after Mr. Baker played a role in reviewing internal communications about the company’s decision to publish a 2020 New York Post article about the laptop. The billionaire has also sidelined his personal lawyer to work at Twitter and has enlisted other legal aid from SpaceX, the rocket company he founded and operates.
In addition to the FTC investigation, Twitter is facing a slew of lawsuits over unpaid bills for software, vendor services, and rent. Former employees have also sued the company, claiming it violated labor laws during layoffs.
Twitter also sought legal action against an unknown individual who leaked parts of his source code online and was served with a subpoena last month to force GitHub, the software development collaboration platform that hosted the code, to release information about the individual.
This week, a German federal agency began proceedings to fine Twitter for what the company said it failed to address complaints about illegal content. “First I’ve heard of this,” Mr. Musk said tweeted Tuesday about the German lawsuit.
Mr Dowell’s resignation comes after Mr Musk said he was building a “powerful litigation team” at Tesla, its electric car maker. Tuesday he tweeted that this team would go “after the Wall St short-sellers, certain law firms and (sometimes) corrupt regulators who are the true evil.”
Several Twitter executives have resigned, only to rejoin the company, and it’s unclear if Mr. Dowell will return to Twitter at some point.
Robin Wheeler, a sales executive, resigned in November, but came back and stayed for a few more weeks. It was not immediately clear who at Twitter might inherit Mr Dowell’s legal responsibilities.
