“Offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real, and what drives our policy and enforcement above all”
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has explained why Donald Trump was permanently banned from the social media site.
Dorsey’s comments come after Trump was locked out of his account for 12 hours last week. That suspension followed his decision to refer to the rioters who stormed the US Capitol as “patriots” and “very special people”.
Twitter said after further review of his tweets, the decision was made to ban him “due to the risk of further incitement of violence”.
Shedding further light on the situation, Jack said that he did not “feel pride or celebrate” banning Trump from Twitter, but that it was the “right decision”.
He said: “We faced an extraordinary and untenable circumstance, forcing us to focus all of our actions on public safety. Offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real, and what drives our policy and enforcement above all.
“That said, having to ban an account has real and significant ramifications. While there are clear and obvious exceptions, I feel a ban is a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation. And a time for us to reflect on our operations and the environment around us.
“Having to take these actions fragment the public conversation. They divide us. They limit the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning. And sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation.
“The check and accountability on this power has always been the fact that a service like Twitter is one small part of the larger public conversation happening across the internet. If folks do not agree with our rules and enforcement, they can simply go to another internet service.”
He then tied this in with his love of Bitcoin, stating that “this is what the internet wants to be, and over time, more of it will be”.
You can read the thread in full by clicking the tweet below.
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
