Twitter is developing Project Guardian, an internal list of thousands of accounts that could potentially be hacked by other users. Being on this list will quickly track complaints about these users in Twitter’s moderation systems. But there will also be a limit for high-profile users. Unlike Facebook’s treatment of VIPs, which has been criticized for allowing celebrities and politicians to break the platform’s rules, Twitter’s system won’t necessarily give users more privileges.
Some well-known athletes, media personalities and politicians will be among the protected profiles. But Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of site integrity, tells Bloomberg that the list does not include famous users. As we mentioned, the system will also help protect normal people who have gone viral.
In an ideal world, Twitter should give every user the same amount of security support. But as Bloomberg points out, the company is currently receiving too many audit requests to manage it. Perhaps this is an argument that user security should scale in proportion to user growth. While Project Guardian helps protect some users, it’s also a smart way for Twitter to suppress harassment, which can damage its own image.