Jack Dorsey: Trump ban was right but sets dangerous precedent

Jack Dorsey, chief executive officer of Twitter, has defended the platform’s decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account indefinitely but said it sets a dangerous precedent.

Twitter had banned the outgoing president in the wake of the attack on the US Capitol Hill by a pro-Trump mob last week.

In a series of posts on his Twitter page on Thursday, the CEO justified their reasons for permanently suspending the president’s account.

“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,” he wrote.

Dorsey also said he feels turning to a ban ultimately shows a failure by Twitter to promote healthy conversation.

“Having to take these actions fragment the public conversation. They divide us. They limit the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning. and sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation,” he added.

Facebook has also banned Trump from using his accounts, citing his intent to “undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power.”

Trump had complained that social media platforms are exercising censorship and suggested he may launch a competing platform.

Amazon had on Wednesday defended its decision to kick ‘Parler‘, a free speech social network, from its cloud servers, saying the platform — popular with Trump’s supporters — failed to delete threats of violence.

Some people used Parler to spread messages promoting insurrection and to plan for last Wednesday’s deadly invasion of the U.S. Capitol.

Amazon Web Services booted social network Parler on Monday in a move that effectively removed it from the internet.

The conservative-friendly platform then filed a lawsuit in a Seattle federal court that demanded Amazon keep Parler on its service.