(Headline USA) Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey apologized for his mishandling of the company while he was in its leadership, admitting that he didn’t try to stand up to the political activists pushing the platform to the Left.
In a blog post responding to the “Twitter Files” revelations, Dorsey said he believes Twitter should have stuck to three core principles: “resilience to corporate and government control,” only allowing the “original author to remove content they produce,” and relying on “algorithmic choice” to implement moderation online.
There's a lot of conversation around the #TwitterFiles. Here's my take, and thoughts on how to fix the issues identified. I'II start with the principles I've come to believe based on everything l've learned and experienced through my past actions as a Twitter co-founder and lead:
— jack (@jack) December 13, 2022
“The Twitter when I led it and the Twitter of today do not meet any of these principles,” he said. “This is my fault alone, as I completely gave up pushing for them when an activist entered our stock in 2020. I planned my exit at that moment knowing I was no longer right for the company.”
Dorsey did not identify the activist to whom he referred, but the timing matches when investor Paul Singer’s Elliot Management bought a $1 billion stake in the company and started to push out Dorsey.
The former CEO went on to say Twitter’s biggest mistake was building tools that it could to use to “manage the public conversation” rather than giving those tools to the “people using Twitter to easily manage it for themselves.”
“This burdened the company with too much power, and opened us to significant outside pressure,” he admitted. “I generally think companies have become far too powerful, and that became completely clear to me with our suspension of Trump’s account.”
Twitter’s decision to suspend former President Donald Trump from the platform was a part of the latest “Twitter Files” dump. Internal documents revealed Twitter officials decided to permanently kick the president off despite the fact that he had not violated any of its policies.
Dorsey said he supports the release of the “Twitter Files” and said he hopes current Twitter CEO Elon Musk continues to make this information public.
“I wish they were released WikiLeaks-style, with many more eyes and interpretations to consider,” he said. “There’s nothing to hide … only a lot to learn from.”
