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Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, has said that banning Donald Trump from the platform was the “right decision,” but that it sets a dangerous precedent.
Speaking for the first time since the social network took the remarkable step of permanently suspending the president’s account following a violent attack on the US Capitol, Dorsey said the company faced “an extraordinary and unsustainable circumstance that forced us to to focus all our actions on Public safety “.
“I neither celebrate nor am I proud of having to ban @realDonaldTrump on Twitter, or how we got here, ”Dorsey admitted Wednesday in an extended Twitter thread. “I feel like a ban is our failure, ultimately, to promote healthy conversation. And a moment for us to reflect on our operations and the environment that surrounds us ”.
Dorsey said it was the right decision for the company, but such actions “fragment the public conversation.”
“They divide us,” he continued. “They limit the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning. And it sets a precedent that I consider dangerous: the power that an individual or a corporation has over a part of the global public conversation. “
I neither celebrate nor pride myself on having to ban @realDonaldTrump from Twitter, or how we got here. After a clear warning that we would take this action, we made a decision with the best information we had based on threats to physical security both on and off Twitter. Was this correct?
– jack (@jack) January 14, 2021
Last week Twitter suspended the president, who was indicted for a second time Wednesday for inciting a mob of his supporters, due to the “risk of further incitement to violence.” The decision comes as other big tech companies, including Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest and YouTube, have suspended Trump’s accounts temporarily and, in some cases, permanently because of the attack.
Silicon Valley has faced a reckoning over its role in spreading disinformation and as a platform for planning insurrection. For years, Dorsey has resisted moderating the platform’s high-profile users, arguing that the public has a right to hear from newsworthy figures.
But in 2020 it began flagging Trump’s tweets for misinformation, disabled the ability to retweet except when adding comments, and in some cases removed tweets that appeared to incite violence. Twitter had also tested in the months surrounding the US presidential election a series of policies to limit the spread of hate speech and misinformation.
Still, he faced criticism for failing to address the growing danger posed by Trump’s account, which overflowed after the president incited a mob to storm the Capitol building on Jan.6.
Following the violent events, which left five dead, Trump tweeted what appeared to be an explanation or justification for the mob as he continued to push a false narrative that the election was not legitimate, saying: “These are the things and events that happen when a The sacred overwhelming electoral victory is so stripped and brutally stripped. “
On Friday, Trump’s account was permanently suspended. The president frantically hopped from account to account, attempting to tweet from @POTUS and his @TeamTrump campaign account before those outlets were restricted for him as well.
Twitter explained its reasoning for removing Trump in a lengthy blog post on Friday night. He said Trump’s tweets could easily be interpreted as encouragement or justification to “replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021.”
Dorsey underscored in his tweets the need for a new “open decentralized standard for social media.”
“It is important that we recognize that this is a time of great uncertainty and struggle for many people around the world,” he said. “Our goal at this time is to disarm everything we can and make sure that we are all building towards a greater common understanding and a more peaceful existence on earth.”
Reuters contributed to this report
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