June 21 (UPI) -- Twitter announced Thursday that it acquired Smyte, an online safety company.
"Today, we're very excited to announce that we've agreed to acquire Smyte, a San Francisco-based technology company that specializes in safety, spam, and security issues," Twitter said on its safety blog. "Smyte's team, technology and company mission are aligned with our focus on improving the health of conversation on Twitter, and we believe this will be a powerful addition to our ongoing work."
Smyte said it would shut down its business to join Twitter and serve customers on "a larger scale." Neither Smyte nor Twitter disclosed the terms of the deal.
"During the past three years, we've helped large and small customers alike solve countless issues with spam, abuse and fraud," Smyte said in a disclaimer on its website. "We're proud of this work, and look forward to continuing our mission at a larger scale - with one of the most important services in the world."
Smyte could help Twitter address its problems with trolls, automated accounts and abuse, TechCrunch reported. Leaders at Smyte have previously worked with Google, Instagram and Facebook.
Twitter, like Facebook, has faced scrutiny since the 2016 U.S. presidential election over concerns about Russia-linked accounts promoting political discord.
Twitter has said it pinpointed at least 3,814 accounts with ties to the Internet Research Agency, a pro-Kremlin organization.
