Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: “I do not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban @realDonaldTrump”
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted in a statement this week that his platform’s decision to ban President Trump set a “dangerous” precedent.
Dorsey said that it was ultimately a “failure” by the company to “promote healthy conversation.”
“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 wrote.
“Having to take these actions fragment[s] the public conversation,” he added. “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.”
Big Tech’s actions against Parler feel ‘like a suppression of free speech’: Constellation Research founder https://t.co/q9lxJSMR3G @MorningsMaria @FoxBusiness
— Maria Bartiromo (@MariaBartiromo) January 12, 2021
The Daily Wire reported that Twitter has taken a hit in its value since banning the president last week.
Several conservative voices have also criticized Dorsey’s statement and Twitter’s inconsistency in its censorship.
“A lot more people would be supportive of banning Trump from Twitter if the rule was even remotely close to being enforced consistently,” tweeted Caleb Hull. “No excuse for allowing literal terrorists, but banning Trump.”
Twitter’s censorship of President Trump and other conservatives is a threat to free speech. If Jack Dorsey and Twitter have learned their lesson, hopefully they will recognize this and work it out.
Our freedom of speech as Americans is a Constitutional right, and it is necessary for a functioning democracy. We must always defend the First Amendment, especially when it involves Big Tech giants like Twitter.