Twitter boss Jack Dorsey breaks silence on not banning Alex Jones
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has explained why he will not be following the lead of his social media counterparts in banning right-wing shock jock Alex Jones, declaring that he was guided by principles not pressure.
Jack Dorsey breaks ranks to defend right-wing shock jock Alex Jones
In recent days Apple, Facebook and YouTube have all moved in concert to ban the more extreme outpourings from Jones but Twitter remains a safe harbor for the talk show host as his tweets, though controversial, haven’t broken its rules.
Jones has fallen foul of censors elsewhere for promoting hate speech and violence but Dorsey has adopted a different tack, vowing commitment to "a healthy conversational environment" stretched to include Jones.
On this rationale, Dorsey said: “We’re going to hold Jones to the same standard we hold to every account, not taking one-off actions to make us feel good in the short term, and adding fuel to new conspiracy theories.
“If we succumb and simply react to outside pressure, rather than straightforward principles we enforce (and evolve) impartially regardless of political viewpoints, we become a service that’s constructed by our personal views that can swing in any direction. That’s not us.”
Instead Dorsey is calling on journalists to investigate and refute the more outlandish claims propagated by Jones, including a wild theory that a 2012 US high school shooting in which 26 people were killed was an elaborate hoax.
Last week Spotify became the latest channel to proactively remove content created by Jones, with Twitter now left as the sole social platform still offering full access to Jones and his views.
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