“I don’t feel any pride in having to ban @realDonaldTrump.” In a series of messages published on the night of Wednesday, January 13 to Thursday, January 14, founder and boss of Twitter Jack Dorsey believes that the decision to ban Donald Trump from the platform for encouraging violence on Capitol Hill was “the maid”. However, he considers that this choice constitutes a “failure” and “sets a precedent” which seems to him “dangerous” compared to the power held by big companies.
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. Was this correct?
– jack (@jack) January 14, 2021
It’s a “failure on our part to promote healthy conversation” and this kind of measures “divides us. They limit the possibilities to explain, to redeem, to learn”, he continued.
Twitter was the Republican billionaire’s main communication tool, who used it on a daily basis to directly address his 88 million subscribers. He was also suspended from Facebook, Snapchat, Twitch, and, since Tuesday, YouTube for a week. Google’s video platform faced increasing pressure from NGOs and personalities.
“This sets a precedent that I find dangerous: the power that an individual or a company has over part of the global public conversation.”Jack Dorsey admits in this introspective monologue. He emphasizes that the balance of power was respected as long as “people could just go to another service, if our rules and our rule application didn’t suit them”.
But “This concept was challenged last week when a number of essential internet tool vendors also decided not to host what they found dangerous.”, he admits.
I do not think that [le choix fait par les grandes plateformes de mettre au ban Donald Trump] was coordinated. More likely: Companies have come to their own conclusions or have been encouraged by the actions of others.
In addition to its flagship measure, Twitter deleted this weekend 70,000 accounts affiliated with QAnon, a pro-Trump conspiratorial movement, involved in the invasion of the Capitol which disrupted the certification ceremony of Joe Biden’s victory last Wednesday .
When Donald Trump tried Friday to respond to the suspension of his personal account via the official POTUS account (President of the United States), for the attention of “75 million patriots” who voted for him, his messages were immediately removed by the social network. “Using another account to avoid suspension is against our rules”, then explained a spokesperson for the company.
