In a widely distributed environment socializing threadTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Wednesday backed last week’s decision to ban President Trump from his company’s platform, saying it was something he did not “celebrate or feel proud of,” but something that was decided. “Based on threats to physical security, both on and on Twitter. ”
Twitter permanently banned Mr Trump’s account on Saturday over “risk of incitement to violence” following deadly siege on US chapter.
Dorsey said it was the “right decision” in his post Wednesday.
“We have faced an extraordinary and unbearable circumstance, which forces us to focus all our actions on public safety,” he said. “The harm offline as a result of talking online is demonstrably real and what determines our policy and application above all.”
However, Dorsey said, the ban on accounts “has real and significant ramifications.”
“Although there are clear and obvious exceptions, I believe that the ban is our failure in the end to promote a healthy conversation … We must take these actions to fragment the public conversation. 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. “
He also said that Twitter is only a small part of a larger conversation on the internet.
Dorsey said that if people do not agree with the rules of a platform and the application of these rules, then “they can simply go to another service.” But that capacity is limited when events unfold as they did last week, when several seemingly uncoordinated social networking sites censored Mr. Trump and others who allegedly incited violence in Washington. AD
“This moment may require this dynamic, but in the long run it will be destructive to the noble purpose and ideals of the open internet,” Dorsey said. “A company that makes a business decision to moderate is different from a government that eliminates access, but it can feel the same way.”
In an effort to help combat this, Dorsey said she is working on a platform that can serve as “a fundamental internet technology that is not controlled or influenced by any individual or entity.”
For now, he said the global public conversation is “the best and most relevant” solution.
“Everything we learn right now will improve our effort and push us to be who we are: one humanity working together.”
Mr. Trump addressed social media censorship in his first video message on Wednesday, after the House accused him of inciting insurrection for “intentional incitement to violence against the United States government” on January 6th.
After condemning last week’s Capitol riots – without assuming the right to incite for which he was accused – Mr Trump spoke of “the unprecedented assault on freedom of expression we have seen in recent days”.
Shortly after the riots, Twitter has permanently suspended Mr. Trump’s personal account and Facebook suspended his account for the remainder of the presidency. Tuesday, YouTube temporarily banned Mr. Trump from uploading new content.
Meanwhile, the “free speech” platform speak was suspended from Apple and Google app stores and eventually shut down by Amazon Web Services for not moderating content that incited violence. Several posts showed Trump supporters calling on others to take part in a “million militia march” on January 20 and for “patriots” to take their weapons to Washington.
Many individuals have called for a second civil war because Mr. Trump lost the election.
“These are tense and difficult times. Efforts to censor, blacklist and blacklist our fellow citizens are wrong and dangerous,” Trump said in the video, which was posted on the White House Twitter account. “What is needed now is for us to listen to each other, not to silence each other. We can all choose through our actions to rise above the rank and find a common point and a common goal ”.