Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey discussed the principles he believes should govern social media, and how they were not implemented on Twitter, as he admitted the mistake he made in managing Twitter after the Twitter profiles appeared in a Getrevue post. ) affiliated with Twitter.
Dorsey’s statement comes after the release of 5 batches of Twitter profiles, in which Elon Musk leaked specific details about various instances of censorship on the platform. The files also talk about the events that led to the “account” of former US President Donald Trump.
Dorsey said he believes “there were no ill intentions or hidden agendas, and everyone acted according to the best information we had at the time.”
The Twitter files exposed the social media companies’ weak points, as the files leaked inside information about how Twitter handles censorship on the platform.
Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, who was in charge for most of the period the files are about, has come forward to take the blame for the mistakes.
Jack Dorsey discussed the principles he believes should govern social media, and how they are not being implemented on Twitter.
Dorsey argues that social media should be resilient to corporations and government attempts to control it and that only the original author should be able to remove their content.
Commenting on the issue of moderation, Dorsey believes that it should be dealt with by algorithmic choice, rather than central control.
Dorsey said, “Twitter I ran and Twitter today doesn’t live up to any of those principles. And that’s my fault alone, as I completely gave up pushing for ideas I wanted to implement to make the company better when a shareholder acquired our shares in 2020 because I no longer had hope.” “In achieving any of it as a public company without defense mechanisms in place. I planned my exit at that moment knowing I was no longer a good fit for the company.”
Dorsey admitted he failed to uphold those principles on Twitter and that the company’s suspension of Donald Trump’s account was a mistake. He attributes this failure to his decision to prioritize public conversation management tools, rather than enabling users to manage them themselves. Dorsey believes this approach has given Twitter too much power and made it vulnerable to outside pressure.
How do you fix Twitter?
Dorsey suggests that there should be a free and open social media protocol that is not owned by any company or group of companies. He claims that this protocol will allow users to build and choose their own algorithms based on two factors: moderation and importance, and will not be controlled by the company or the government.
Dorsey said that “mistakes were made” and that Twitter would be in a better position today if the company “focused more on tools for people who use the service than on tools for us.”
“The problem today is that we have companies that own the protocol and discover the content,” Dorsey wrote, “which ultimately puts one person in charge of the decision to publish or delete.”
Dorsey cited Bluesky, a nonprofit organized by Twitter, as well as Mastodon and Matrix as startups that could live up to his vision of what constitutes a free and open protocol for social media. He said he would provide grants for promising projects, starting with $1 million for Signal, an encrypted messaging app.
