Twitter gutted its policy team. Some of the band is getting back together.
Analysis by Cristiano Lima
Over a dozen former executives who led Twitter’s public policy team on Wednesday are launching a new political advisorygroup, taking the practically unheard of step of reuniting en masse after the company, since-rebranded X, shed much of its ownshop under Elon Musk.
The newly minted Blue Owl Group, a nod to Twitter’s once-iconic bird logo, is stacked with longtime tech veterans looking touse the new perch to shape major debates about the internet, artificial intelligence and climate — while recapturing thecompany’s sensibilities.
“Our team culture was a very strong team culture … and so that made our group I think perhaps particularly cohesive,” Colin Crowell, Twitter’s first policy hire in 2011 and its former vice president of global public policy, told me in an interviewTuesday.
While the firm includes several veterans like Crowell who left Twitter years before Musk’s takeover, over half of its rosterdeparted after the mogul launched his bid to buy the platform last year, including many who left in the past six months,according to a review of their LinkedIn profiles.
Though Twitter once had one of the most prominent voices in tech policy debates, the announcement highlights how the company’s presence in Washington and other global capitals has faded, as it hemorrhages its government affairs teams.
The group features numerous policy heavyweights with decades of experience across Capitol Hill and the executive branch in addition to their tech industry bona fides:
Crowell served for two decades as an adviser to then congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and later as a senior counselor to Democratic Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski.
Lauren Culbertson Grieco, a former staffer for the late senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), led Twitter’s government affairs shop for the United States and Canada until leaving in May.
Lauren Devoll, a veteran of the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, served as a global partnerships and innovation manager for Twitter until exiting in February.
Twitter’s policy teams were gutted by layoffs late last year that were followed by employee departures after a Musk ultimatum requiring employees commit to his new “hardcore” vision, as my colleagues reported.
The group is also focused on building out global teams, as Twitter did in the past, bringing on brass that worked on policy in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.
That includes:
Karen White, who served as head of public policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Camino Rojo, who led the team’s policy shop for Spain and Portugal.
Emmanuel Lubanzadio, who served as head of government affairs for Africa.
Crowell, who will serve as the new group’s managing director, said the firm is hoping to help companies, investors and start-ups navigate what he called the next “hinge of history” when it comes to internet policy, particularly those committed to “an open internet vision” and “strong ethical standards on privacy and data protection.”
And they will be focusing not just on social media but technologies that are “coming fast and furious at us, whether it's AI, blockchain, green tech,” Crowell said.
“There are opportunities to animate these new technologies with the human values that we cherish and bring those to the fore early in the public policymaking arenas,” he said.
That could also mean working with so-called “decentralized” social media sites that are looking to create alternatives to major platforms owned by behemoths like Meta and Google, he said.
“There’s no question that there’s a hegemony of very large companies atop the internet ecosystem pyramids so to speak right now,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that those companies don’t offer salient or positive contributions to public policy frameworks.”
