Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, has accepted full responsibility for the social media platform’s numerous failures, confessing he “totally gave up” opposing powerful activists within the company.
In a blog explaining his “perspective” on the “Twitter Files,” the site’s former CEO acknowledged full “responsibility” for a sequence of unprecedented behind-the-scenes maneuvers yielding to political pressure, beginning with suppressing The Washington Post’s exclusive exposés on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
He now feels that Twitter should have adhered to three fundamental principles, including refraining from managing messages and the algorithms that distribute them, and remaining “resistant to corporate and government control.”
“Neither Twitter when I headed it nor Twitter today adhere to any of these values,” Dorsey said.
Dorsey accepted ‘responsibility’ for the scandals revealed in the ‘Twitter Files,’ including the censorship of The Washington Post’s reporting.
“This is solely my fault, as I stopped advocating for them when an activist bought our stock in 2020,” he said.
A little over a year ago, he stated of his resignation, “I planned my exit knowing I was no longer a good fit for the organization.”
“This is solely my fault,” Dorsey added, acknowledging that he “absolutely gave up pushing” for the ideas in which he believed when activists gained control.
Dorsey did not disclose the identity of the activist, but the period coincides with when investor Paul Singer’s Elliott Management acquired a $1 billion investment and initiated efforts to unseat him as CEO.
Dorsey lamented the “dangerous” attacks on his “former colleagues” in his confessional, which he confessed was too lengthy to publish in its entirety on the platform he built.
Because his “perspective” on the “Twitter Files” was too lengthy to put on the site he created, Dorsey published it on a blog.
“If you want to assign guilt, point the finger at me and my actions, or lack thereof,” he wrote, adding that he now “supports” the site “needing a fresh reset.”
He stated that his “greatest mistake” was helping Twitter develop tools to “control the public conversation” instead of “tools allowing Twitter users to easily manage it for themselves.”
“This gave the company too much authority and exposed us to tremendous external pressure,” he admitted.
“In general, I believe that corporations have become far too strong, and this became very evident to me when we suspended [then-President] Trump’s account” in January of last year, he stated.
This suspension, which was just recently lifted by the site’s new owner Elon Musk, was “bad for the internet and society.”
Nonetheless, he attributed it to “mistakes” and maintained that “there was no malice or hidden objectives” in delaying the president.
He wrote, “Again, I am responsible for all of this and our actions, and all I can do is work to put things right.”
Now, Dorsey is a “strong believer that all content created for the internet should be permanent until the original author deletes it.”
He wrote, “Content removals and suspensions should not be possible.”
After the “Twitter Files” exposed the shadowbanning of conservative speakers on the service, he also addressed “moderation” on the platform.
“A ‘follow’ action should always deliver every piece of content from the corresponding account, and algorithms should be able to sift through everything else through a relevance lens that an individual determines,” he wrote, as opposed to the previous system in which staffers could manipulate such mechanisms.
Dorsey also made it clear that he not only supports the publication of the scandalous “Twitter Files,” but that he wants Musk would go even farther and share all the records, not just journalistic interpretations.
“I wish they were disclosed Wikileaks-style, with many more eyes and interpretations to contemplate,” he stated, emphasizing that despite the controversies, “there is nothing to conceal…
There is only much to learn from.”
Dorsey has frequently supported Musk’s free-speech vision for the site, while cautioning against the potential pitfalls of having a single person in charge.
Musk has also praised the creator of his new company, stating recently, “Jack has a pure heart.”
Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, recently asserted that Jack Dorsey “has a pure heart.”
Dorsey remained optimistic that the site might improve and learn from his faults despite his own criticisms.
He stated, “I still want Twitter and every other firm to become uncomfortably open in all their acts, and I wish I had pushed for this more years ago.”
“I believe perfect transparency fosters confidence.”
»Jack Dorsey accepts sole’responsibility’ for scandals disclosed in ‘Twitter Files’«