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Witter CEO Jack Dorsey has defended the ban on the company from US President Donald Trump, but also warned of the dangerous precedent it sets.
Mr Dorsey said the company faces an “extraordinary and untenable circumstance” when it comes to public safety.
“I think it was the right move for Twitter,” Dorsey said, speaking for the first time since the US leader was blocked from the platform.
Twitter permanently bans Donald Trump
But such bans, he said, also highlight Twitter’s “failure” to create an open and healthy space for what Mr Dorsey calls the “global public conversation.”
Indeed, he suggested, taking extreme action with public figures, actions like the ban on Mr. Trump highlight the extraordinary power that companies like his can wield – and the collateral damage. that such actions may result.
The Twitter co-founder, however, had little to say about how his platform or other big tech companies might avoid such choices in the future.
“I’m not proud of having to ban @realDonaldTrump from Twitter or how we got here,” Dorsey admitted Wednesday.
“I think a ban is our failure, at the end of the day, to promote healthy conversation. And a moment for us to reflect on our operations and the environment around us.
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Mr Dorsey said it was the right move for the company but that such actions “fragment the public conversation”.
“They divide us,” he continued. “They limit the potential for clarification, redemption and learning.
“And sets a precedent that seems dangerous to me: the power that an individual or company has over part of the global public conversation.”
Last week, Twitter suspended the president over “risk of further incitement to violence.”
Twitter’s move came as other big tech companies, including Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest and YouTube, suspended Trump’s accounts temporarily and, in some cases, permanently due to the attack.
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