Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey explained why he hasn’t banished Alex Jones

Alex Jones and Twitter CEO
Jack Dorsey.
Reuters/Getty/Business
Insider

• 
  Jack Dorsey defended Twitter‘s decision to allow
  Alex Jones to keep tweeting
  after Apple, Facebook, and YouTube all banned the Infowars
  presenter.
• Dorsey took a thinly veiled swipe at Facebook and
  YouTube, which only acted after Apple removed Jones, by saying
  that Twitter does not “simply react to outside
  pressure.”
• Dorsey’s decision has not gone down well with some,
  however, with Reddit’s former CEO suggesting it could lead to
  Twitter’s demise.

---

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has tweet-stormed his reasons for not
banishing renowned conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and in doing
so, took a not-so-subtle swipe at Facebook and YouTube.

In a thread of five tweets,
Dorsey said Jones did not break Twitter rules and so the company
decided against blocking him after Apple, Facebook, and YouTube all
shut down the Infowars presenter on Monday.

Dorsey said Twitter won’t hesitate to take action if Jones does
violate its terms of use, but said the firm was not about to
react to outside influence. It was a thinly veiled dig at
Facebook and YouTube, which only took action against Jones after
Apple decided to scrub his podcasts from iTunes for hate speech.

In a tick-tock on the events of
Monday, CNN’s Dylan Byers revealed that Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg personally stepped in to remove four of Jones’ pages.
He did this only after learning of Apple’s decision, Byers said,
which is why Facebook announced its decision at 3 a.m. Pacific
Time. YouTube and Spotify reacted similarly.

“If we succumb and simply react to outside pressure, rather than
straightforward principles we enforce (and evolve) impartially
regardless of political viewpoints, we become a service that’s
constructed by our personal views that can swing in any
direction,” Dorsey tweeted. “That’s not us.”

Dorsey then went on to say that it is the job of reporters to
shoot down the false assertions made by Jones. He explained:
“Accounts like Jones’ can often sensationalize issues and spread
unsubstantiated rumors, so it’s critical journalists document,
validate, and refute such information directly so people can form
their own opinions.”

As BuzzFeed’s Charlie Warzel
points out, Jones does use Twitter differently to other
social media sites, choosing to be less inflammatory. “He’s much
more careful with what he posts,” Warzel said. But this hasn’t
shielded Twitter from criticism following its decision to allow
Jones a platform.

A notable detractor is former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao, who suggested
it could lead to Twitter’s demise. In a tweet directed at Dorsey, she
said: “Your platform does not operate in a vacuum. We tried
treating @reddit as a silo, and it was a huge mistake. People got
harassed cross-platform. Also if your site is the only one that
allows this hate and harassment, it will get overrun and
collapse.”