Twitter CEO: Blocking political content would stoke fears of abuse

WASHINGTON — While lamenting abusive conduct on Twitter, CEO Jack Dorsey said any move to block content based on political or social views would stoke already rising concern about the power of social media companies.

“We can’t just keep changing randomly based on our viewpoints,” Dorsey said on CNN. “That just adds to the fear of companies like ours making these judgments.”

Dorsey’s comments aired a day after President Trump, a devoted Twitter user, wrote on the site that “Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices.” Last week, Twitter put temporary limits on the account of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for violating the company’s policies against abusive behavior.

“More and more people have fear of companies like ours and the perceived power that companies like ours have over how they live and even think every single day,” Dorsey told CNN. He said he understands that feeling, but doesn’t see himself as having that power.

Trump, in a Twitter post, said social media companies are unfair in how they apply their rules. “They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others,” Trump wrote.

While Dorsey has conceded that his workforce is left-leaning, Twitter has insisted that many allegations of anti-conservative bias reflect only actions against those engaged in threats or other banned behaviors, regardless of the political content.

The restrictions against Jones were a reversal from earlier in the month, when Dorsey said Jones would be allowed to continue to use Twitter because he hadn’t violated the company’s rules. That was at odds with moves by Facebook and YouTube, which pulled Jones off their platforms over content that violated hate-speech and harassment policies.

Dorsey, who has declared his intention to improve the “health” of Twitter conversations, said he’s open to changing the platform to help avoid abuses.

Possible initiatives include placing less emphasis on follower counts and adding context to misinformation, he said.

Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook spent years boasting that they were committed to open discourse, only to face backlash as they became platforms for the spread of false information, racist violence and election interference.