Twitter Joins Team To Address Harmful Content And Misinformation On Its Platform

Ella Irwin, now leads the HPS twitter team. (photo: twitter @ellagirwin)

JAKARTA - Twitter Inc. is now bringing together a team working to reduce “toxic” or malicious content and spam bots. This is known from a staff memo on Tuesday, August 23 made known to Reuters, amid accusations from a former executive who is now a whistleblower that the company Twitter is doing a good job.

The social media company will combine its “health” experience team, which works to reduce misinformation and harmful content, with the Twitter services team, which is responsible for reviewing profiles reported by users and removing spam accounts. The new group will be called "Health Product Service (HPS)," as identified by emails to employees.

Ella Irwin, vice president of products for healthcare and Twitter, who joined the company in June, will now lead the HPS team.

"We need the team to focus on a specific issue, work together as a team and no longer operate in silos," Irwin wrote in an email to staff. He added that the team would "ruthlessly prioritize the project.

The formation of the HPS team is now even more important as Twitter is being challenged in various fields. A former top security chief and hacker, Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, has accused the company of misleading federal regulators about its defenses against hackers and spam accounts.

Twitter is also battling Tesla Inc chief executive Elon Musk in court as the world's richest man tries to walk away from a $44 billion acquisition deal to buy the company. Musk has accused Twitter of withholding information about how it counts spam accounts.

Twitter said on Tuesday that Zatko's accusations were aimed at attracting attention and causing harm to his company. They also said that it supports its disclosure on spam accounts and bots.

Twitter is also preparing to strengthen its defenses against the spread of misinformation ahead of the US midterm elections in November.

"The reorganization of the malicious content and spam team reflects our ongoing commitment to prioritizing, and focusing our team on pursuing our goals," a Twitter spokesperson said, as quoted by Reuters.

The move also comes as high-level executives including Kayvon Beykpour and Bruce Falck, who oversee consumer products and revenue, have left the company in recent months amid the turmoil between Twitter and Musk.

According to two employees who requested anonymity, the team responsible for reducing harmful or toxic content has been hit hard by the recent staff departures.

At least one current employee said the reorganization did not appear to have a significant impact on their jobs.

A former employee who worked on security at Twitter said he wasn't optimistic the reshuffle would lead to a fix, as the root cause of the company's problems with spam accounts historically runs deeper than a single team could tackle on their own. He declined to be named for fear of harming future job opportunities.