Twitter's shopping features pose a content moderation risk and may be used “in ways that
Memo, part of which was received by TheVerge, was sent out in early July to a group of Twitter employees from different teams, according to a person familiar with her. The letter categorized certain existing and not-yet-released features of Twitter Shopping as high-risk, with the letter warning that content moderation was not a priority.
In the section of the memo entitled "evaluationrisks", several elements of Twitter's e-commerce tool are classified as "high". One area of high risk is seller-generated fields such as store names and descriptions, which the advisory warns can be used by attackers for adverse purposes.
First launched last summer, the shopping featureon Twitter allows brands to list items for sale and pin multiple items to the top of the seller's profile. Users cannot purchase items directly from Twitter – instead, items for sale lead to the seller's website.
The memo paints a picture of a weak search process andremoving potentially offensive or harmful content from the Twitter Stores. According to the memo, the platform does not yet have a policy on what counts as a violation of a store name or description, and no guidance on how to deal with violations.