Twitter boss defends move to ban Trump
TWITTER chief executive Jack Dorsey has defended the company’s ban of US President Donald Trump, but also warned of the dangerous precedent it sets.
The social media giant was one of many to put curbs on the president – who was impeached for a second time on Wednesday – after violent clashes at the Capitol.
When Twitter called out Mr Trump’s incitement to violence, Mr Dorsey said the company faced an “extraordinary and untenable circumstance” with respect to public safety.
“I believe this was the right decision for Twitter,” Mr Dorsey wrote.
But such bans, he said, also point up Twitter’s “failure” to create an open and healthy space for what Mr Dorsey calls the “global public conversation”.
In effect, he suggested, taking extreme steps with public figures, such as banning Mr Trump, highlight the extraordinary power that companies like his can wield – and the collateral damage that such actions can lead to.
The Twitter co-founder suggested that the social media giant needs to find ways to avoid having to make such decisions in the first place.
Exactly how that would work isn’t clear, although it could range from earlier and more effective moderation to a fundamental restructuring of social networks.
For the moment, Mr Dorsey wrote, Twitter’s goal “is to disarm as much as we can, and ensure we are all building towards a greater common understanding, and a more peaceful existence on earth.”
Mr Trump was impeached by the US House of Representatives for a historic second time, charged with “incitement of insurrection”, over the deadly mob siege of the US Capitol in a swift and stunning collapse of his final days in office.
With the Capitol secured by armed National Guard troops inside and out, the House voted 232-197 to impeach Mr Trump.
The proceedings moved at lightning speed, with representatives voting just one week after violent pro-trump loyalists stormed the Capitol, egged on by the president’s calls for them to “fight like hell” against the election results.
Ten Republicans joined Democrats who said Mr Trump needed to be held accountable and warned ominously of a “clear and present danger” if Congress should leave him unchecked before Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20. Mr Trump is the only US president to be twice impeached. It was the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in modern times, more so than against Bill Clinton in 1998.
The Capitol insurrection stunned and angered politicians, who were sent scrambling for safety as the mob descended, and it revealed the fragility of the nation’s history of peaceful transfers of power.
The riot also forced a reckoning among some Republicans, who have stood by Mr Trump throughout his presidency and largely allowed him to spread false attacks against the integrity of the 2020 election.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invoked Abraham Lincoln and the Bible, imploring colleagues to uphold their oath to defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign “and domestic”.
She said of Mr Trump: “He must go, he is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love.”