On Tuesday, Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey penned a blog post explaining his take on the Twitter Files, outlining what he felt went wrong during his time in charge of the company and taking the blame for the social media platform's shortcomings.
Dorsey began by outlining three core principles he believed social media platforms should adhere to going forward. He suggested that they must be "resilient to corporate and government control," only allow the original author to remove content they produce, and ensure that users have their choice when it comes to moderation algorithms.
"The Twitter when I led it and the Twitter of today do not meet any of these principles," he lamented. "This is my fault alone, as I completely gave up pushing for them when an activist entered our stock in 2020."
Dorsey went on to explain that the "biggest mistake" he made was to continue helping build tools allowing Twitter to "manage the public conversation" instead of tools giving users the ability to manage it themselves.
"This burdened the company with too much power, and opened us to significant outside pressure (such as advertising budgets)."
He suggested that companies have become "far too powerful" in today's world, pointing out that the decision to suspend a sitting president from a social media platform, while savvy from a business point of view, was detrimental to society.
"Content takedowns and suspensions should not be possible," Dorsey added, noting that, "Doing so complicates important context, learning, and enforcement of illegal activity."
Turning his attention to the Twitter Files, Dorsey wrote that if Twitter had worked to put the people in the driver's seat, the company "probably wouldn’t be in this situation of needing a fresh reset." He expressed support for Elon Musk's actions, but suggested that perhaps a "Wikileaks-style" drop would have been more beneficial as it would have allowed for more people to give a diverse set of interpretations.
"There’s nothing to hide…only a lot to learn from," he continued, adding that the attacks on his former colleagues "could be dangerous and doesn’t solve anything.
"If you want to blame, direct it at me and my actions, or lack thereof," he said.
Dorsey concluded by announcing that he would soon be giving out $1 million per year to Signal for the first in a series of grants with the goal of "open internet development."
Since leaving Twitter, Dorsey has been consistent in his acknowledgment that the internet is being changed for the worse via the actions taken by big corporations, and has fought to promote the idea that it should return to its former glory as a free space where community and creativity can flourish.
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