Twitter co-founder defends ban issued to Donald Trump
14 January 2021, 04:14
The US president was suspended from the social media site.
Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey has defended the company’s ban of US President Donald Trump, but also warned of the dangerous precedent it sets.
The social media giant was one of many to put curbs on the president after violent clashes at the Capitol.
When Twitter called out Mr Trump’s incitement to violence, Mr Dorsey said the company faced an “extraordinary and untenable circumstance” with respect to public safety.
I do not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban @realDonaldTrump from Twitter, or how we got here. After a clear warning we’d take this action, we made a decision with the best information we had based on threats to physical safety both on and off Twitter. Was this correct?
— jack (@jack) January 14, 2021
“I believe this was the right decision for Twitter,” Mr Dorsey wrote.
But such bans, he said, also point up Twitter’s “failure” to create an open and healthy space for what Mr Dorsey calls the “global public conversation”.
In effect, he suggested, taking extreme steps with public figures actions such as banning Mr Trump highlight the extraordinary power that companies like his can wield – and the collateral damage that such actions can lead to.
The Twitter co-founder, however, had little specific to say about how his platform or other Big Tech companies could avoid such choices in the future.
