Twitter chief defends Trump ban, but says it sets a ‘dangerous’ precedent
- Jack Dorsey said suspending Donald Trump’s account was ‘the right decision’ but also represents a failure to promote healthy conversation on the platform
- Meanwhile, Snapchat has joined other social media companies in banning the US president after his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington
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“Having to ban an account has real and significant ramifications,” Dorsey said in a string of tweets inviting feedback from users.
“While there are clear and obvious exceptions, I feel a ban is a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation.”
Trump’s access to social media platforms he has used as a megaphone during his presidency has been largely cut off since a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington last week. Operators say he could use his accounts to foment more unrest in the run-up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
The tech war between Silicon Valley and Washington takes a new turn
Twitter said in a blog post explaining its decision that after close review of the president’s recent tweets it had “permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence”.
It also blocked efforts by Trump to sidestep the ban when he posted tweets from the official presidential account @POTUS and the @TeamTrump campaign account.
“We understand the desire to permanently suspend him now,” ACLU senior legislative counsel Kate Ruane said at the time.
“But, it should concern everyone when companies like Facebook and Twitter wield the unchecked power to remove people from platforms that have become indispensable for the speech of billions.”
Dorsey said on Wednesday that while he believes Twitter made the “right decision” to ban Trump, it “sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation”.
“Having to take these actions fragment the public conversation … This moment in time might call for this dynamic, but over the long term it will be destructive to the noble purpose and ideals of the open internet,” Dorsey said.
“I do not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban realDonaldTrump from Twitter, or how we got here,” Dorsey wrote. “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.”
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Twitter is far from the only major platform to oust Trump, with bans also in effect by Facebook and YouTube temporarily suspending his channel.
Image-centric social network Snapchat on Wednesday said it has permanently banned Trump from the platform.
“Last week we announced an indefinite suspension of president Trump’s Snapchat account,” Snapchat said. “In the interest of public safety, and based on his attempts to spread misinformation, hate speech, and incite violence, which are clear violations of our guidelines, we have made the decision to permanently terminate his account.”
Google and Apple pulled Parler apps from their shops for digital content shops stating that the right-leaning social network was allowing users to promote violence.
Amazon Web Services later ousted Parler from its data centres, essentially forcing the social network offline due to lack of hosting services.
Dorsey rejected the notion that social media giants coordinated these efforts, reasoning that it was more likely they each came to the same conclusion about the potential for violence.
Can Trump keep grip on Republicans without his potent political weapon?
Texas attorney general Ken Paxton on Wednesday said he is demanding that Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter explain why Trump is not welcomed on their platforms.
Paxton maintained that the “seemingly coordinated de-platforming” of Trump “silences those whose speech and political beliefs do not align with leaders of Big Tech companies”.
The state attorney issued administrative subpoenas calling on the technology companies to share their policies and practices regarding content moderation as well as for information directly related to Parler social network.
