Twitter removed President Trump’s U.S. account last week, citing the risk of violence following his supporters’ invasion of the Capitol.
Twitter Inc Chief Executive Jack Dorsey says banning US President Donald Trump from his social media platform after last week’s violence at the United States Capitol was the “right decision”, but said that sets a dangerous precedent.
San Francisco’s Twitter last week removed the Trump account, which had 88 million followers, citing the risk of further violence following the invasion of the Capitol by supporters of the president.
“Having to take these steps fragments the public conversation,” said Dorsey on Twitter. “They divide us. They limit the potential for enlightenment, redemption and learning. And it sets a precedent that I consider dangerous: the power that an individual or company has over a part of the global public conversation. “
The ban drew criticism from some Republicans, who said it suppressed the president’s right to freedom of expression. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also warned through a spokeswoman that lawmakers, not private companies, must decide on possible restrictions on freedom of expression.
In his Twitter thread, Dorsey said that while he was not proud of the ban, “offline damage as a result of online speech is proven to be real and what drives our policy and enforcement above all”
I don’t celebrate or feel proud that we have to ban @realDonaldTrump from Twitter, or how we got here. After a clear warning that we would take this action, we made a decision with the best information we had based on threats to physical security on and off Twitter. Was that correct?
– jack (@jack) January 14, 2021
Even so, he added: “Although there are clear and obvious exceptions, I feel that the ban is our failure to promote healthy conversation.”
Twitter introduced a series of measures last year, such as labels, warnings and distribution restrictions to reduce the need for decisions on the total removal of content from the service.
‘Healthy’ conversations
Dorsey said he believed that these measures could promote more fruitful or “healthy” online conversations and lessen the effect of bad behavior.
The Twitter CEO added that Trump’s social media company bans after last week’s violence were encouraged by each other’s actions, although they were not coordinated. But in the long run, the precedent set “will be destructive to the noble purpose and ideals of the open Internet,” he said.
Trump supporters, who repeatedly made baseless claims challenging Democratic Joe Biden’s victory in the November elections, stormed the United States Capitol on January 6, trying to prevent Congressional certification of the Biden Electoral College victory.
On Wednesday, Trump became the first president in US history to face two charges of impeachment.