Twitter Gets Serious On Spam

Everyone seemingly wants a piece of Twitter as it continues its rapid growth--including those who would use the service for unscrupulous reasons.

It is that very reason why the largest group at the 140-employee company is now the "Trust and Safety" unit, according to a report from AdAge.

The unit, headed up by Del Harvey, who came to Twitter from Perverted Justice, a group that helped Dateline NBC with its To Catch a Predator series, is tasked with keeping tabs on potential fraud via Twitter, and also with keeping tabs on legit marketing that could be perceived as spam. While the eyes of the company are on the lookout, businesses should not be discouraged from dipping into the Twitter pool.

"We aren't trying to do away with affiliate marketing on Twitter. One successful rule of thumb is to engage the people you are trying to sell stuff to. If you are creating a dialogue with people and not just touting things because you want to make a buck, you are going to have a network of people that value your input," Harvey said in the report.