Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s role in banning conservatives from the platform is more hands-on than previously thought. Namely, the left-leaning Silicon Valley titan was involved in removing longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone from Twitter, reports Business Insider.
Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey is reportedly getting more personally involved with blocking controversial accounts on the platform, a departure from an earlier, long-held ethos that the company is the “free-speech wing of the free-speech party.” [..]
He would ask Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Del Harvey, to take action when abuse directly impacted celebrities or other high-profile users, the report said.
Per the Fast Company source: “Jack was making those [kinds of] calls. They were very smart about it — you’re not going to find a paper trail. He was very good about providing certain items to [the] safety [team] and asking for action. He would tell somebody [on the team], You should check out this account — you should do something about it.” […]
But other employees, according to the report, worry that Twitter could tilt over into censorship.
“The moment you’re catering to the request of a CEO — whether by making exceptions in enforcement or by taking action outside of [what] the policy [calls for] — everything goes downhill,” a source is cited as saying.
The same department that Dorsey has directed to ban Stone has also removed British activist Tommy Robinson.
In October of last year, Stone was suspended for going on a tirade against CNN host Don Lemon.
Below is a partial screen shot of Stone’s tweets.
Screenshot credit: Reddit
GQ’s politics Keith Olbermann suggested that Dorsey suspend Stone over his attack on Lemon.
“Hey @jack, how is @RogerJStoneJr’s account not suspended after this public, homophobic attack?,” tweeted Olbermann.
Hey @jack, how is @RogerJStoneJr’s account not suspended after this public, homophobic attack? pic.twitter.com/B3HbqvLcBg
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) October 28, 2017
On Saturday, Stone’s account was permanently suspended.
Sources tell me Roger Stone's suspension from Twitter is permanent. He spent last night attacking CNN reporters. pic.twitter.com/qPdKNQzpBR
— David Mack (@davidmackau) October 28, 2017