Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday that he would reverse the ban on former US President Donald Trump while speaking at a conference. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey seems to agree with this decision in a series of tweets he posted as a reply to another user. Trump was permanently banned from the platform shortly after the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.
BREAKING: @ElonMusk says he would reverse Trump’s suspension from Twitter and called the ban “morally wrong” and “flat out stupid.” pic.twitter.com/ahRTaO5caV
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 10, 2022
Dan Primack, a journalist, tweeted saying that Dorsey agreed with Musk’s sentiment, along with a reminder that Dorsey was CEO of Twitter at the time. Dorsey replied to this tweet with an affirmation, “I do agree. There are exceptions (CSE, illegal behaviour, spam or network manipulation, etc), but generally permanent bans are a failure of ours and don’t work, which I wrote about here after the event (and called for a resilient social media protocol),” and added a link to a thread he had tweeted on January 2021, shortly after Trump’s ban from Twitter.
A bit confused. That old thread you posted says you agree with the decision, but regret the circumstances/decisions/etc. that led to that conclusion of a perma ban. Or am I misreading? Or are you saying the decision should have been subsequently revisited?
— Dan Primack (@danprimack) May 10, 2022
Primack then replied, asking Dorsey for clarification, since according to him, the earlier thread made it sound like Dorsey agreed with the decision at the time. Dorsey then clarified by explaining how it was a business decision and said that it should not have been one.
it was a business decision, it shouldn’t have been. and we should always revisit our decisions and evolve as necessary. I stated in that thread and still believe that permanent bans of individuals are directionally wrong.
— jack⚡️ (@jack) May 10, 2022
Lance Ulanoff, another journalist, replied comparing Twitter to a bar or another private establishment; asking Dorsey why it was not okay to ban someone from a social media platform just like it is possible at private establishments. Dorsey was quick to reply with a terse statement, “twitter isn’t a bar”.
