Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has confirmed what many on the right have been screaming for years — that his platform is no longer neutral when it comes to politics.
Speaking to podcaster Sam Harris on February 5, Dorsey was grilled about the apparent bias against the right on the platform.
“Twitter reliably lands on one side of the political divide,” Harris said while questioning Dorsey about the ban of feminist Megan Murphy for tweeting “Men are not women,” while discussing transgender people. Her comment was not aimed at attacking any user individually.
Harris pointed out that she was banned while Louis Farrakhan’s tweet calling Jewish people “termites” remains on the platform.
“I don’t believe that we can afford to take a neutral stance anymore. I don’t believe that we should optimize for neutrality,” Dorsey responded.
Harris questioned the CEO about why they don’t just follow the First Amendment and ban illegal or violent speech — but allow debate and commentary as long as it is legal speech. Dorsey dodged the question, but claimed that their policies are based on “the spirit of” the First Amendment, Newsbusters reports.
Harris pointed out that while “alt-right” figures get rapidly banned for life, terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas are still active on the platform.
Going back to Murphy, Dorsey commented that “the case you brought up. I’m not sure what was behind that, but I certainly don’t believe it was that one tweet.”
“Ultimately, I don’t think we can be this neutral, passive platform anymore,” he said.
