Twitter wasn't just bought; it was broken. šš¦ We investigate the inside story of the Trust and Safety team, led for years by Del Harvey, a former law enforcement liaison who spent over a decade building the "digital immune system" of the internet. We break down how a sophisticated operation designed to stop child exploitation and terrorism was dismantled overnight.
1. The "One-in-a-Million" Problem: We analyze Del Harvey's philosophy. At Twitter's scale, a one-in-a-million risk happens 500 times a day. We explore the systems her team built to handle this "strangeness of scale," from PhotoDNA for blocking illegal images to the complex "point of contact" system that ensured every new product had a safety review before launch .
2. The "Twitter Blue" Disaster: What happens when safety is for sale? We discuss the catastrophic rollout of paid verification. By firing the team that authenticated identities and letting anyone buy a "Blue Check," the platform instantly legitimized scammers, impersonators, and state-backed disinformation networks, destroying years of trust capital in 48 hours .
3. The "Assumption of Good Intent": We expose the new regime's flaw. The dismantling of the safety team wasn't just cost-cutting; it was ideological. By replacing proactive prevention with a philosophy that "assumes good intent," the platform removed the friction that stopped bad actors. We ask: can a modern social network survive without a police force, or does it inevitably become a "hellscape"?
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