Former Twitter Trust and Safety Chief Caught Online Predators Prior to Joining Twitter, Wired Reports
According to Wired, Del Harvey spent her time catching online predators before joining Twitter’s trust and safety team. The lengthy interview between Harvey and senior writer Lauren Goode was published Wired on Tuesday.
Harvey, who made content moderation decisions at Twitter for 13 years, left the company in 2021. Before Twitter, she worked for the nonprofit group Perverted Justice, specializing in posing as children online to catch potential pedophiles.
Wired reported that Harvey started working at Perverted Justice in 2003, when she was 21 years old. She sometimes posed as a young boy or girl as part of the sting operations due to her smaller frame.
The report also revealed that Harvey’s real name isn’t Del Harvey; it’s an alias she adopted to protect her identity from the predators she helped expose. She started working for Twitter in 2008 and remained with the company for more than a decade.
Since Harvey left and Elon Musk bought Twitter, the trust and safety team has been significantly reduced. Despite this, Harvey did not label Twitter as completely “dead,” acknowledging that it still serves certain groups.
The former safety boss called Musk’s actions to fire much of the team “baffling,” but noted that the platform remains active for certain individuals and groups.