Jack Dorsey, Twitter chief executive, confessed that the social media site is having troubles in reducing political rhetoric on the social media platform.
The CEO did some damage control as he revealed the steps the website is taking to decrease hate speech, fake news, and harassment while dodging censorship. In an interview with the Washington Post, he affirmed that he is making an effort in producing features that would promote different opinions in the site's timeline.
He even said that he is considering running automated bots that pose as human users to alter some of the most important elements of the site such as its like button and the user's follower counts presentation.
Twitter Faces Criticisms
Just recently, Twitter garnered criticism from President Trump. Trump said that the site is shadow banning and hushing the voices of Republicans. He even labeled the action as discriminating.
Twitter "SHADOW BANNING" prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2018
"Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made," Trump wrote in a separate tweet.
The Twitter CEO said that shadow banning happens when a certain message is hidden. Additionally, he admitted that most company workers are left-leaning.
Jack Dorsey Releases Statement
In an interview with Briant Stelter from CNN, the CEO said that he thinks it is essential to express their own bias and to let other people know about it because this will foster understanding. However, he believes that they need to remove their bias from how they actualize their policies and enforcement.
However, Dorsey stated that the political ideologies do not shape how the site determines proper behavior on the site.
"The real question behind the question is, 'Are we doing something according to political ideology or viewpoints?' And we are not. Period," he said.
Furthermore, he added that Twitter needs to present that they are not adding their own bias on how they enforce their policies.
His statements are timely. Currently, a debate on how tech companies such as Facebook, Apple Spotify, and YouTube play a big role in political public discourse is ongoing. The social media sites have taken action against a right-wing host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for violating their hate-speech policies.
Notably, Twitter suspended the prominent user's account for a week after he had encouraged his fans to get their battle rifles ready to fight off antifascists and the mainstream media. He made the comments on his show, which was aired on Twitter's video-streaming arm, Periscope.
