Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Thursday defended the ban on outgoing US President Donald Trump, saying that it was the right move as offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real.
Twitter last week permanently banned Trump from its platform, citing “risk of further incitement of violence”.
The Twitter ban came after a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol, hoping to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.
“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,” Dorsey said in one of his tweets.
He blamed Twitter’s failure “to promote healthy conversation,” acknowledged that Twitter needs to “look critically at inconsistencies of our policy and enforcement”.
“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,” Dorsey emphasised.
This concept was challenged last week when a number of foundational internet tool providers also decided not to host what they found dangerous.
“I do not believe this was coordinated. More likely: companies came to their own conclusions or were emboldened by the actions of others,” he added.
According to Twitter, more than 70,000 harmful accounts have been suspended as a result of its efforts after the violence in Washington, DC, with many instances of a single individual operating numerous accounts.
These accounts were engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content at scale and were primarily dedicated to the propagation of this conspiracy theory across the service.
The Twitter CEO then spoke about Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that is surging and is set to break new records.
“The reason I have so much passion for #Bitcoin is largely because of the model it demonstrates: a foundational internet technology that is not controlled or influenced by any single individual or entity,” Dorsey tweeted.
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