This chapter discusses the challenges faced by Dell Harvey, the head of Twitter's spam and abuse team, including the overwhelming presence of Brazilian teenage girls on the platform. It explores the strategies used to address this issue, such as changing the algorithm for determining trending topics and counting only one duplicate tweet towards a trend. The chapter also touches on the broader issue of control over Twitter and the push and pull between the platform and its users.
Today we’re playing you an episode of Land of the Giants that takes a walk down memory lane to the early days of Twitter and how the platform became the best and worst place on the internet. If you like it; check out the Land of The Giants: The Twitter Fantasy and revisit our interviews with Ben Mezrich, Walter Isaacson, Ronan Farrow and William Cohan, or Kara and Nayeema’s own walk down memory lane on Twitter.
Enjoy! And we’ll be back on Thursday with a new episode of On.
This episode hosted by Peter Kafka (@pkafka) and Lauren Goode (@laurengoode)
EDITOR'S NOTE: This episode contains descriptions of sexual harassment and of graphic threats of violence. This section begins after the second midroll break and lasts for about 7 minutes.
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