Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: I ‘fully admit’ our bias is ‘more left-leaning’
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said on Saturday that he “fully admit[s]” Twitter employees share a largely left-leaning bias after facing accusations that conservatives are discriminated against on the social media platform.
In an interview that aired Saturday on CNN, Dorsey said his company has a responsibility to be open about its political viewpoints, but to operate without bias when applying content policies to users.
{mosads}”We need to constantly show that we are not adding our own bias, which I fully admit is … is more left-leaning,” Dorsey says.
“But the real question behind the question is, are we doing something according to political ideology or viewpoints? And we are not. Period,” he added.
Dorsey went on to insist that his company only polices behavior on the platform, not content.
Dorsey’s remarks follow criticism from the right over supposed “shadow-banning” of conservative users. The platform and Dorsey have also faced questions over the decision not to remove far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from the platform, despite other social media platforms choosing to do so.
“We do not look at content with regards to political viewpoint or ideology,” @Jack told me. But he knows some people do not believe him. “I think we need to constantly show that we are not adding our own bias, which I fully admit is left, is more left-leaning,” he says… pic.twitter.com/1i8jJunhfz
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 18, 2018
The Twitter CEO said in an interview with The Hill this week that Jones was banned after he received complaints that Jones’s content was inciting violence.
“We were getting a number of reports around the tweet and the Periscope that the content was inciting violence, which is against our terms of service, and we took action,” Dorsey said.
The Infowars host received a weeklong ban from the platform, but has been removed from other services including YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music.
Dorsey is expected to testify next month before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the issue of Russia’s election interference, and faces a possible subpoena from the House Energy and Commerce Committee over allegations of discrimination against conservatives on the platform.
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