Twitter’s top lawyer, known as a champion of free speech, unexpectedly stepped down on Friday as the microblogging company moved closer toward a long-expected initial public offering.<\/p>\n
Alexander Macgillivray, known for fending off legal challenges to Twitter users’ right to express themselves in pithy, 140-character messages, himself tweeted the news without giving a reason for the move.<\/p>\n
But Macgillivray, who became Twitter’s general counsel in September 2009, said he would continue to support the San Francisco-based company as an adviser.<\/p>\n
Twitter declined to comment, but said Macgillivray would be replaced by Vijaya Gadde, who has been managing the company’s corporate and international legal work. Gadde is a former senior director in Juniper Networks Inc’s legal department.<\/p>\n
Gadde has deep experience in corporate and securities law, while Macgillivray’s specialty is intellectual property.<\/p>\n
Twitter, which has more than 200 million active users, is widely expected to go public in 2014.<\/p>\n
Macgillivray, who has been credited with coining the motto that Twitter is the “free speech wing of the free speech party,” helped shape Twitter’s reputation as a champion for its users’ rights over the years.<\/p>\n
In 2012, Macgillivray’s legal team fought a court order to extract an Occupy Wall Street protester’s Twitter posts, and resisted when India’s government asked Twitter to take down tweets considered inflammatory.<\/p>\n
That same year, he publicly apologized after Twitter briefly suspended the account of a British journalist for posting the work email address of an executive at NBC. The journalist had been openly critical of the network’s Olympics coverage, around which Twitter had built a massive marketing initiative.<\/p>\n
“I think they’re really aware of themselves as being a place for discussion, news and sometimes for dissent,” said Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington, referring to Twitter.<\/p>\n
As a result, the company has had a longstanding commitment for free speech and privacy principles, which would not easily be shaken by Macgillivray’s departure, he said.<\/p>\n
Twitter’s public policy group, which previously reported to Macgillivray, will now report directly to Chief Executive Dick Costolo, the company said.<\/p>\n
Macgillivray said in his blog post that after four years at Twitter he was looking forward to the change.<\/p>\n
“I’m looking forward to engaging my various Internet passions from new and different perspectives, seeing friends and family without distraction, and just goofing off a bit. We should all do more of that,” he tweeted.<\/p>\n
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