Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has reignited the long-raging debate about free speech, content moderation and what that means for the platform. From meme tweets to harassment targeted at Twitter staff, a lot has happened since news of the accusation broke. But now, founder Jack Dorsey has come out to speak about the platform’s shortcomings and what caused them.
Elon Musk had made several tweets talking about the ‘improvements’ he would like to make to the platform. Musk also said that he has zero confidence in the company’s current leadership and posted a meme that targeted Twitter legal head Vijay Gadde. On Saturday, Jack Dorsey put out a series of tweets admitting that the platform had its shortcomings.
“I have tried taking a break from Twitter recently,” began Dorsey, before claiming that Twitter has always tried to do the best it can with the information that it has. In the same tweet, he also took responsibility for the actions of the platform during his tenure there. He also claimed that the company has always admitted its past mistakes and worked to correct them.
I have tried taking a break from Twitter recently, but I must say: the company has always tried to do its best given the information it had. Every decision we made was ultimately my responsibility*. In the cases we were wrong or went too far, we admitted it and worked to correct.
— jack⚡️ (@jack) April 29, 2022
Dorsey also spoke about how some issues have a quick fix, while others require massive structural changes to address; changes that take time. To this, he added that his biggest failing was not responding to these issues quickly enough. He also iterated the importance of a transparent system when it comes to both policy and operations. Dorsey then said that this transparency is more important than whether Twitter is run by a company or an open protocol.
Even though he doesn’t name names, one tweet, in particular, seems to hint that Dorsey believes the permanent ban put on former American president Donald Trump was a bad decision in hindsight. “As I’ve said before, I don’t believe any permanent ban (with the exception of illegal activity) is right, or should be possible,” reads part of the tweet.
Donald Trump’s account was banned in January this year after the Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol which Trump allegedly incited himself. At the time Twitter had banned the account with over 88 million followers to prevent the risk of further incitement of violence.
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