Twitter Files: Former CEO Jack Dorsey calls attacks on former colleagues dangerous

Dorsey wrote that companies own “both the protocol and discovery of content,” which is a problem and this means that ultimately “one person in charge of what’s available and seen, or not.” He calls this “as a single point of failure, no matter how great the person”, and in his view this will “fracture the public conversation, and may lead to more control by governments and corporations around the world.” The comments are interesting, given that Twitter is controlled by one person right now, which is Elon Musk– the world’s second richest man.

The former Twitter CEO also laid out principles for social media companies, two of which could be seen as controversial. For one, he believes that only “the original author may remove content they produce.” He also added that “moderation is best implemented by algorithmic choice.” He also stressed that “social media must be resilient to corporate and government control,” something he admits he was unable to do so during his time at the company.

He also blamed himself, adding that he gave up on these principles, “when an activist entered our stock in 2020.” This is a reference to activist investor Elliott Management– a hedge fund that joined Twitter in 2020 with around 9 per cent stake. Elliott had pushed for bigger changes at Twitter, and advocated for Dorsey’s removal as well.

1. Social media must be resilient to corporate and government control.
2. Only the original author may remove content they produce.
3. Moderation is best implemented by algorithmic choice.

— jack (@jack) December 13, 2022

The post adds, “The biggest mistake I made was continuing to invest in building tools for us to manage the public conversation, versus building tools for the people using Twitter to easily manage it for themselves.” According to him, this mistake meant Twitter had too much power and the company was also on to “significant outside pressure (such as advertising budgets).”

In his view, companies have become far too powerful, adding that this fact was clear when Trump’s account was suspended. He called the suspension a “right thing for the public company business at the time, but the wrong thing for the internet and society.” But Dorsey also wrote that he does not believe there was any “ill intent or hidden agendas,” around the suspension— something that Musk and his group of followers keep alluding to when it comes to the Twitter files.

“Content takedowns and suspensions should not be possible. Doing so complicates important context, learning, and enforcement of illegal activity,” he wrote.

Regarding moderation, Dorsey says he does not believe in a centralised system and feels that “people should be able to build and choose from algorithms that best match their criteria, or not have to use any at all.” In his view, the need of the hour is for a “free and open protocol for social media, that is not owned by a single company or group of companies, and is resilient to corporate and government influence.” But exactly how this will be achieved remains unclear.