OPINION:
Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter, former overseer of all that was wrong about Twitter, all that was anti-free speech on Twitter, now says he has the solution for what ailed Twitter under his tenure. And he wants new Twitter CEO Elon Musk — who, by the way, is doing a bang-up job of booting the anti-American forces who hogtied conservative speech under Dorsey’s leadership — to listen up and listen up good, and learn.
Where was Dorsey when conservatives needed him? Where was this pro-transparency, pro-free speech, pro-free expression Dorsey these past few years?
Oh, that’s right. Testifying before Congress about all the ways Twitter did not stifle, shut down and shadow-ban conservative expressions.
But now he wants to weigh in?
“There’s a lot of conversation around the #TwitterFiles,” he wrote in a blog post. “Here’s my take and thoughts on how to fix the issues identified.”
Do tell.
“I’ll start with the principles I’ve come to believe … 1. Social media must be resilient to corporate and government control. 2. Only the original author may remove content they produce. 3. Moderation is best implemented by algorithmic choice.”
Number Two alone would’ve gone far in establishing and maintaining the public’s trust in the platform.
It’s good of Dorsey to admit his failures. But it would have been better if he had admitted them when he was in a position to fix them.
“The Twitter when I led it and the Twitter of today do not meet any of these principles,” he wrote. “This is my fault alone, as I completely gave up pushing for them when an activist entered our stock in 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). I planned my exit at that moment knowing I was no longer right for the company.”
So he failed as a leader and quit the company.
He acknowledged his push to “invest in building tools for us to manage the public conversation, versus building tools for the people using Twitter to easily manage it themselves,” he wrote.
He recognized how this model handed Twitter “too much power.”
But then he added: “I continue to believe there was no ill intent or hidden agendas.”
Bull you-know-what.
Of course his left-leaning executives and staffers and giggling, enabled, brainwashed-in-the-ways-of-socialism Gen Z basement dwellers used the platform and abused their positions of power to silence as many dissenting views as they could — whether by programmed algorithm or human hand. Of course they did.
Of course.
And he knows that.
“I do still wish for Twitter, and every company, to become uncomfortably transparent in all their actions, and I wish I forced more of that years ago,” he wrote.
His wish could’ve been his command. But he didn’t reel in his staff. He could’ve forced the transparency but failed to do so. Refused to do so. And it could’ve been so easy to do, too.
“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,” Dorsey wrote.
Add to that — this: “… except when I’m in a position of power to ensure that belief is protected policy.”
He didn’t say that last part, but it’s implied.
Thing is, for Dorsey to come clean on his leadership failures now, while at the same time pretending he was powerless to be the type of leader he says Twitter needs, is gaslighting of the highest order.
Dorsey was CEO of Twitter. Under his watch, Twitter became a censorship tool of the left. Under his watch, Dorsey denied, denied, denied such censorship occurred. And now that Twitter is being opened to speech of all types — now that Musk is doing for Twitter what Dorsey said he wanted all along for Twitter — Dorsey wants to play the part of apologetic savior?
Here’s why: “To accelerate open internet and protocol work, I’m going to open a new category of #startsmall grants: ‘open internet development.’ It will start with a focus of giving cash and equity grants to engineering teams working on social media and private communication protocols, bitcoin, and a web-only mobile OS.”
He’s kicking off the grant program with $1 million per year to Signal.
In other words: He’s busily investing in technological platforms that can compete with Musk’s Twitter. He wants to build a new platform to give all the disgruntled leftists a new censor-happy home.
Those who restrict speech don’t suddenly wake up and smell the evils of their restrictions on speech. Those who allow censorship to go forth don’t suddenly see the anti-American bents inherent in their censorship ways.
As Dorsey also wrote: “The current attacks on my former colleagues could be dangerous and doesn’t solve anything.”
In the end, he’s still a guy who sees some speech as dangerous and in need of control.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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