Jack Dorsey breaks his silence on Twitter's decision to ban Trump after Capitol riots

Jack Dorsey broke his silence Wednesday on Twitter's decision to permanently ban President Donald Trump.
Dorsey called it "the right decision for Twitter" amid "an extraordinary and untenable" circumstances, but said a ban was a "failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation" and that could set a "dangerous" precedent.
In the series of tweets, Dorsey also advocated for more open and decentralized approaches to developing social media standards, citing Bitcoin as an example of a technology "not controlled or influenced by any single individual."
Twitter, Facebook, and Snap indefinitely banned Trump after he incited rioters at the US Capitol last week, while Apple, Google, and Amazon all cut ties with far-right social media upstart Parler, reigniting debates over the balance between speech and public safety.
Trump was impeached by the US House of Representatives on Wednesday for "incitement of insurrection," related to last week's Capitol riots.
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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey spoke out on Wednesday for the first time following an attempted insurrection at the US Capitol last week - and Twitter's decision to permanently banish the president over his role in it.

In a series of tweets, Dorsey said he believed Twitter made the right call given the extreme situation, while also expressing concerns about possible negative long-term consequences and advocating for more decentralized efforts to police social media platforms.

"I do not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban @realDonaldTrump from Twitter, or how we got here. After a clear warning we'd take this action, we made a decision with the best information we had based on threats to physical safety both on and off Twitter," Dorsey said.

"I believe this was the right decision for Twitter. We faced an extraordinary and untenable circumstance, forcing us to focus all of our actions on public safety. Offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real, and what drives our policy and enforcement above all," Dorsey added.

His comments alluded to Twitter's rationale for banning Trump last week, which cited "the risk of further incitement of violence."

—jack (@jack) January 14, 2021

However, Dorsey also indicated that blocking Trump was far from his preferred course of action, calling it "a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation. And a time for us to reflect on our operations and the environment around us."

Dorsey said that such actions "fragment the public conversation... divide us... limit the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning," while setting a "dangerous" precedent by highlighting "the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation."

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