Image Courtesy: Twitter
Following Elon Musk’s disclosure of scandalous data about Twitter, the company’s founder and ex-CEO Jack Dorsey has acknowledged responsibility for problematic content judgments made while he was in charge.
Dorsey claimed in a blog post that Twitter has too much ability to make content judgments under his supervision. Users should have had greater control over what they see on the internet, and Twitter did a bad job of developing tools to help them do so.
Dorsey noted that after an activist investor appeared in early 2020, he “totally gave up pressing for” those ideas.
“I no longer had hope of achieving any of it as a public company with no defense mechanisms (lack of dual-class shares being a key one),” he said. “I planned my exit at that moment knowing I was no longer right for the company.”
There's a lot of conversation around the #TwitterFiles. Here's my take, and thoughts on how to fix the issues identified. I'II start with the principles I've come to believe based on everything l've learned and experienced through my past actions as a Twitter co-founder and lead:
— jack (@jack) December 13, 2022
Writing about the suspension of the Twitter account, Dorsey wrote, ” I generally think companies have become far too powerful, and that became completely clear to me with our suspension of Trump’s account. As I’ve said before, we did the right thing for the public company business at the time, but the wrong thing for the internet and society”.
Dorsey also discussed how he plans to address the issues exposed by Twitter Files.
Dorsey stated, “I believe that any content created for the internet should be forever unless the original author chooses to delete it. It should be accessible and addressable at all times. Takedowns and suspensions of content should not be permitted “.
On Twitter’s moderation policy, the company’s creator remarked, “I don’t believe a centralised system can handle worldwide content management. It can only be accomplished through the use of ranking and relevancy algorithms, the more localised the better. Instead of a firm or government developing and managing these, people should be able to create and select from algorithms that best meet their needs, or not use any at all “.
He continued, “The issue today is that companies own both the protocol and the discovery of content. As a result, one individual is ultimately in charge of what is available and visible, or not. This is, by definition, a single point of failure, regardless of how brilliant the person, and it will fragment the public debate over time, potentially leading to more control by governments and companies around the world “.
Dorsey wished “Twitter, and every company, to become uncomfortably transparent”.
“The recent attacks on my former colleagues are potentially hazardous and do not solve anything,” Dorsey remarked. “If you want to point a finger, point it at me and my actions, or lack thereof.”
Dorsey justified the sale of Twitter to Musk, claiming that becoming private gave the company a “new reset.”
Dorsey recently urged Elon Musk to share Twitter’s internal discussions about moderation choices relating to an article about President Joe Biden’s son Hunter “without filter.”
Musk has disclosed a frightening internal Twitter chat, dubbed “Twitter Files,” alleging that it reveals the platform’s earlier efforts to limit free speech, particularly from conservative voices.