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Twitter bravely calls on journalists to fix Twitter

Twitter’s CEO spoke about Alex Jones, and it didn’t go great.

Photo of David Covucci

David Covucci

jack dorsey
Andrew Mager/Flickr (CC-BY-SA)

Journalists in 2018 have one of the more fraught jobs out there. Not only are they constantly under attack from President Donald Trump, they’re underpaid and live in fear of losing their jobs as tech platforms suck up revenue that once went to news sites.

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It sucks, but at least our tech overlord CEOs would also now like journalists to do the thankless task of fact-checking conspiracy theories and policing hate speech for free. Whoopie!!

Last night, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey went on Twitter to discuss why he hadn’t banned Alex Jones and InfoWars from his platform, like the rest of his brethren in Silicon Valley (this week, Apple, Facebook, YouTube, and Spotify all took major action).

His response: Jones hadn’t broken any of Twitter’s rules.

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So brave. Anyway, it’s perfectly fine if a private platform wants to ban Jones, and it’s perfectly fine if a private platform wants to keep Jones and allow him to spew his dubious, conspiratorial worldviews. What’s not okay is offloading the work you’ve done in amplifying some of his most noxious beliefs onto a whole ‘nother industry, especially a poorly compensated and overly taxed industry.

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That… did not go over well.

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One of Jones’ most odious stances is that the Sandy Hook massacre was staged by the government. In case Jack forgot, journalists, you know, did cover that.

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https://twitter.com/emmaroller/status/1027014468197343232

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https://twitter.com/socarolinesays/status/1027019457112301568

It wasn’t just that. Dorsey’s claim that Jones hadn’t violated any of Twitter’s rules baffled people, given Twitter’s opaque policing and seemingly reactionary suspensions.

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https://twitter.com/DavidKlion/status/1027038415961903106

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Twitter may one day figure it all out, but yesterday wasn’t that day.

 
The Daily Dot