“We are focused on one account [@realDonaldTrump] right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account,” Dorsey said.
By David Isaac, World Israel News
“This is going to be much bigger than just one account, and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told staffers in a leaked video, referring to the permanent banning of President Donald Trump from the social media giant’s services.
The video was leaked to Project Veritas, a conservative undercover investigative news outlet.
“We are focused on one account [@realDonaldTrump] right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account, and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, and the next few weeks, and go on beyond the inauguration,” Dorsey said.
“So, the focus is certainly on this account and how it ties to real-world violence. But also, we need to think much longer term around how these dynamics play out over time. I don’t believe this is going away anytime soon,” he added.
“You know, the U.S. is extremely divided. Our platform is showing that every single day,” he said.
A Twitter spokesman has confirmed the video is authentic to Fox News.
“The remarks shown in the video were delivered to our more than 5,400 employees and are nearly the same words Jack shared in a recent Tweet Thread offering context around and reflections on our work to protect the conversation in recent weeks,” the spokesperson said.
On Thursday, Dorsey had publicly defended his company’s decision to ban Trump, saying “I believe this was the right decision for Twitter.”
Dorsey referred in his Twitter thread to the fact that Parler, an up-and-coming Twitter competitor, abruptly lost its hosting services and ability to recruit new members.
“If folks do not agree with our rules and enforcement, they can simply go to another internet service. This concept was challenged last week when a number of foundational internet tool providers also decided not to host what they found dangerous,” he said, appearing to disagree with the decision to ban Parler.
“I do not believe this was coordinated. More likely: companies came to their own conclusions or were emboldened by the actions of others,” he said, despite the fact that Amazon, Google and Apple acted in near-unison to remove Parler from the Internet, citing its alleged failure to properly moderate harmful content.
Critics of the move say Amazon, Google and Apple unfairly singled out Parler and continue to allow threats and calls for violence to pass on their own platforms.
Parler’s CEO John Matze and his family are now in hiding after receiving death threats. Parler filed a motion in U.S. district court on Friday to redact names of Parler employees from exhibits in order to protect them from harassment and harm.
The free speech issue surrounding the banning of Trump from Twitter has largely broken down along party lines. Democrats, with few exceptions, appear to be egging on the internet crackdown.
The Associated Press, in an article on Saturday, downplayed the threat to free speech and even seemed to be contributing to the crackdown by pointing out places the social media giants have missed, namely podcasts.
“Accounts that have been banned on social media for election misinformation, threatening or bullying, and breaking other rules also still live on as podcasts available on the tech giants’ platforms,” the report said.