27th August 2022, Kathmandu
Twitter is combining teams working to reduce toxic content and ‘spam bots’. The news came amid allegations by a former executive that the company had failed to do these things properly.
The social media company is combining its ‘Health Experience’ team, which works to reduce misinformation and harmful content, with the Twitter Services team responsible for reviewing user-reported profiles and removing spam accounts.
According to an email sent to the company’s employees, the new group formed by the combination of the two teams will be called ‘Health Products and Services (HPS).’
“We need teams working together as a team to focus on specific problems,” Irwin wrote in an email to employees.
Twitter has been widely criticized for the company’s security and control over toxic content and ‘spam bots’. In such a situation, the establishment of an HPS team is of great importance.
Peter Zatko, a former Twitter security chief, and respected hacker accused the company of misleading federal regulators about its protections against hackers and spam accounts.
Similarly, Twitter backed out of a $44 billion deal made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to buy the company for the same reason. Currently, this case has reached court.
Twitter on Tuesday denied the allegations made by Jatco earlier, saying that Jatco had made the allegations to draw attention to itself and damage the company. Meanwhile, Twitter has said it is sticking to its stance on spam and bots.
Twitter is also preparing to strengthen its defenses against the spread of misinformation ahead of next November’s US midterm elections.
A Twitter spokesperson said: ‘The reorganization of the Toxic Content and Spam teams focuses our teams on pursuing our goals, and reflects our continued commitment to prioritization.’
Teams responsible for reducing harmful and toxic content have recently been hit hard by staff departures. High-ranking executives, including Kevin Beckpour and Bruce Falk, who oversaw consumer products and revenue, have also recently left the company amid the chaos with Musk. According to an employee of the company, the reorganization did not seem to have a significant impact on their work. Similarly, a former security employee at Twitter has also estimated that the change will not bring any improvement.
He claims that the company’s problem with spam accounts is much deeper than one team simply can’t handle.