What you need to know
- Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says he believes banning President Donald Trump from the platform was the right decision.
- However, he also says the ban is a failure to promote healthy conversation.
- He says bans by other platforms were not coordinated, but may have been emboldened by the actions of others.
Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey has spoken at length on the platform about its decision to ban President Donald Trump, stating he believes it was "the right decision" in "extraordinary and untenable circumstance."
Jack launched a series of tweets overnight stating:
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? I believe this was the right decision for Twitter. 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.
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?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, 2021January 14, 2021
Dorsey did however state that the ban had "real and significant ramifications" and was "a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation." Dorsey said the ban would fragment public conversation and limited the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning.
Dorsey further noted Twitter was "one small part of a larger public conversation", and that if people didn't agree with its rules and enforcement that they were free to go elsewhere.
You can read the full extensive thread for yourself, however, Dorsey concluded by stating:
I believe the internet and global public conversation is our best and most relevant method of achieving this. I also recognize it does not feel that way today. Everything we learn in this moment will better our effort, and push us to be what we are: one humanity working together.
President Trump was permanently suspended from the Platform on January 8. At the time, Twitter said it had taken the decision "due to the risk of further incitement of violence." Twitter had locked the President's account over three tweets it had flagged and said if they were removed then the ban would be lifted. Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram have also moved to ban the President from their respective platforms. Dorsey noted that these bans were not coordinated, but that other platforms had come to their own decisions and may have been emboldened by the actions of others.
