Twitter made a significant change to its internal structure’s handling of misinformation and spam bots as it battles Elon Musk in court and reacts to a whistleblower complaint from a former executive.
The company said in a memo on Tuesday that it was merging its health experience team, which handles misinformation, and its Twitter service team, which handles spam bots, into a singular entity. The team, now known as “Health Products and Services,” will oversee both interests.
“We need teams to focus on specific problems, working together as one team and no longer operating in silos,” wrote Ella Irwin, the vice president of product for health and Twitter service, in a memo acquired by Reuters. Irwin was hired in June and will oversee the newly assembled team.
TWITTER IN TROUBLE WITH CONGRESS AFTER WHISTLEBLOWER REVEAL OF SECURITY FLAWS
Twitter is reeling at the moment from the implications of a whistleblower complaint filed by the former Twitter head of security Peiter Zatko. Zatko accused the company of improperly handling its security and of lying to its board of directors about security practices. Congress is pushing for regulators such as the Federal Trade Commission to penalize the company for its malpractice. It is unclear if the details of the report may have influenced the merging of the two teams.
The reorganization of the two teams comes as Twitter’s efforts to manage spam bots have become an area of focus after the Tesla CEO attempted to justify the termination of his acquisition of Twitter by claiming that there were too many bots on the platform. Twitter immediately sued Musk in an attempt to get him to uphold his agreed-upon terms for acquisition.
Twitter and Musk’s legal teams are expected to meet from Oct. 17 to Oct. 21, when they will have an expedited trial over the lawsuit about Musk’s decision to terminate the deal. Twitter filed multiple subpoenas regarding Musk’s associates in the hope of seeking information on any discussions about the funding of Musk’s planned $44 billion acquisition of the company.
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Musk’s legal defense has focused on finding proof that Twitter has been deceptive about the number of users it categorizes as bots. A judge from the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled on Aug. 15 that Musk could only interview 1 out of 22 Twitter employees involved in the testing or confirm the number of bots on the platform. Musk also filed a subpoena of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey requesting information on bots and mergers.
