Twitter Files: Founder Jack Dorsey blames himself says, ‘This is my fault alone’

Dorsey wrote in a blog post wrote Twitter ultimately had too much power to make content decisions under his guidance. Users should have had more control over what they see online, and Twitter did a poor job of building tools to handle that.

Dorsey added that he “completely gave up pushing for” those ideas after an activist investor showed up in early 2020.

“I no longer had hope of achieving any of it as a public company with no defense mechanisms (lack of dual-class shares being a key one),” he said. “I planned my exit at that moment knowing I was no longer right for the company.”

Writing about the suspension of the Twitter account, Dorsey wrote, ” I generally think companies have become far too powerful, and that became completely clear to me with our suspension of Trump’s account. As I’ve said before, we did the right thing for the public company business at the time, but the wrong thing for the internet and society”.

Further, Dorsey shared his views on how he can fix the issues that were revealed on Twitter Files.

Dorsey wrote, “I’m a strong believer that any content produced by someone for the internet should be permanent until the original author chooses to delete it. It should be always available and addressable. Content takedowns and suspensions should not be possible”.

On the moderation policy of Twitter, the company’s founder wrote, ” I don’t believe a centralized system can do content moderation globally. It can only be done through ranking and relevance algorithms, the more localized the better. But instead of a company or government building and controlling these solely, people should be able to build and choose from algorithms that best match their criteria, or not have to use any at all”.

He added, “The problem today is that we have companies who own both the protocol and discovery of content. Which ultimately puts one person in charge of what’s available and seen, or not. This is by definition a single point of failure, no matter how great the person, and over time will fracture the public conversation, and may lead to more control by governments and corporations around the world”.

Dorsey wished “Twitter, and every company, to become uncomfortably transparent”.

“The current attacks on my former colleagues could be dangerous and doesn’t solve anything,” Dorsey said. “If you want to blame, direct it at me and my actions, or lack thereof.”

Dorsey defended the sale of Twitter to Musk, saying that taking the company private has given it the chance for a “fresh reset.”

Recently, Dorsey urged Elon Musk to release “without filter” Twitter’s internal communications about moderation decisions relating to a report about President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

Musk has released a shocking internal Twitter conversation—which he has named “Twitter Files”—claiming that the information discloses the platform’s previous efforts to suppress free speech, especially from conservative voices.