Twitter’s reputation as a deadbeat company under Elon Musk continues unabated, with the company refusing to pay its Google Cloud bills.
Twitter has been in hot water numerous times since Musk’s buyout over not paying its bills or honoring contractual obligations. The latest issue, however, could have major repercussions, crippling the teams responsible for combating spam, child abuse material, and more.
According to Platformer, the company is refusing to pay its Google Cloud bill, a service used heavily by the company’s trust and safety teams. The social media platform has been working to renegotiate its agreement with Google and has evidently decided to play a high-stakes game of chicken with the search and cloud giant.
In retrospect, it’s hardly surprising that Musk and Co. are willing to risk the trust and safety teams’ operations. Since taking over the company, Musk has slashed moderation, and the platform has seen a rise in hate speech and harmful content.
The revelation that Twitter’s refusal to pay its Google Cloud bill could threaten its trust and safety operations sheds new light on the resignation of Ella Irwin, the company’s head of trust and safety, just last week.
One can’t help but wonder if Irwin saw the writing on the wall, realized that trust and safety were about to be crippled, and resigned before the platform turns into a complete dumpster fire.