Jack Dorsey disapproves of Twitter permanently banning certain users

Washington DC: Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Friday (local time) went on a tweetstorm in which he spoke about the microblogging site's shortcomings, including a permanent ban on certain users on the platform. Taking responsibility for every decision taken by the platform, he said, "I have tried taking a break from Twitter recently, but I must say the company has always tried to do its best given the information it had. Every decision we made was ultimately my responsibility. In the cases when we were wrong or went too far, we admitted it and worked to correct them."

Reflecting on the platform's shortcomings, he said it is important to get critical feedback. "Some things can be fixed immediately, and others require rethinking and reimplementing the entire system. It is important to me that we get critical feedback in all forms, but also important that we get the space and time to address it. All of that should be done publicly," he said. He further spoke about the user trust in Twitter and said that a transparent system, both in policy and operations, is the right way to earn trust.

"Whether it's owned by a company or an open protocol doesn't matter as much as deliberately deciding to be open about every decision and why it was made. It's not easy to do, but it must happen," he added.

Acknowledging his failure in correcting shortcomings, he said, "Doing this work means you're in the arena. Nothing that is said now matters. What matters is how the service works and acts, and how quickly it learns and improves. My biggest failing was that quickness part. I'm confident that part at least is being addressed, and will be fixed."

Noting that an individual or a company should not bear the brunt of flaws in service, Dorsey said that he does not believe in a permanent ban against certain users on Twitter. "It's also crazy and wrong that individuals or companies bear this responsibility. As I've said before, I don't believe any permanent ban (with the exception of illegal activity) is right, or should be possible. This is why we need a protocol that's resilient to the layers above," he said. Notably, after Tesla Chief Elon Musk succeeded in his bid to take over Twitter, the former CEO of the microblogging site had dropped a series of tweets, suggesting that he supports the move.

Dorsey called Musk buying Twitter a step in the right direction for the website. For those unaware, Dorsey, the maverick co-founder of Twitter, on November 29, 2021, had suddenly announced his resignation. Parag Agarwal, an IITian, who was CTO at Twitter, was named his replacement.