Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Tuesday defended his company’s decision to break from Facebook and other platforms and not ban Alex Jones and other accounts associated with the websites Jones founded.
“We didn’t suspend Alex Jones or Infowars yesterday,” Dorsey tweeted. “We know that’s hard for many but the reason is simple: he hasn’t violated our rules.” (RELATED: First They Came For Alex Jones)
We didn’t suspend Alex Jones or Infowars yesterday. We know that’s hard for many but the reason is simple: he hasn’t violated our rules. We’ll enforce if he does. And we’ll continue to promote a healthy conversational environment by ensuring tweets aren’t artificially amplified.
— jack (@jack) August 8, 2018
Dorsey then made his case over a series of tweets, insisting that, should Jones violate those rules, he would be held “to the same standard we hold to every account.”
Truth is we’ve been terrible at explaining our decisions in the past. We’re fixing that. 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.
— jack (@jack) August 8, 2018
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.
— jack (@jack) August 8, 2018
Accounts like Jones’ can often sensationalize issues and spread unsubstantiated rumors, so it’s critical journalists document, validate, and refute such information directly so people can form their own opinions. This is what serves the public conversation best.
— jack (@jack) August 8, 2018
On Monday, Facebook, Apple, and YouTube all banned various Jones-associated accounts, citing violations of their terms of service.
“Upon review, we have taken it down for glorifying violence, which violates our graphic violence policy, and using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies,” read part of Facebook’s statement.
But despite their disagreement with Jones on many issues, many conservatives decried the bans as part of a slippery slope.
“This isn’t a First Amendment issue since it’s not the government doing it, yet,” wrote The DC’s Derek Hunter. “But it is about the idea of huge corporations that have become portals through which hundreds of millions of people communicate deciding what is acceptable speech for everyone else. The only speech that needs protecting is unpopular speech, otherwise you could be next.”