Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has responded to criticism from President Donald Trump and Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, after Twitter added fact-checking labels to the president’s tweets about mail-in ballots.
US president, Donald Trump threatened to close down social media platforms, a day after Twitter posted a fact-checking notice on some of his tweets.
Trump’s threat came day after Twitter Inc. for the first time added a warning to some of his tweets that prompted readers to fact check the president’s tweet that claimed mail-in ballots could allow widespread voter fraud. It immediately led to a presidential eruption accusing the platform of “completely stifling FREE SPEECH”.
Donald Trump insinuated that social media firms suppressed conservative points of view, then said that his administration would “strongly regulate [the companies] or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen”.
Jack Dorsey has now reacted to Trump treats saying that he is “ultimately accountable” for Twitter’s actions regarding the fact-check links on the president’s tweets, and implored the public to “leave our employees out of this.”
Reacting to the criticism, Jack wrote;
“Fact check: there is someone ultimately accountable for our actions as a company, and that’s me. Please leave our employees out of this. We’ll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make.
“Per our Civic Integrity policy (https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/election-integrity-policy), the tweets yesterday may mislead people into thinking they don’t need to register to get a ballot (only registered voters receive ballots). We’re updating the link on @realDonaldTrump’s tweet to make this more clear.”
Mark Zuckerberg’s comment in which he outlined Facebook’s obsessively neutral approach to policing its platform with Twitter’s present situation in an interview with Fox News, was also addressed by the Twitter CEO.
Zuckerberg had said; “We have a different policy than, I think, Twitter on this. I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online.
“Private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.”
Reacting to the comment, Dorsey rejected Zuckerberg’s tag and also cited the company’s Civic Integrity Policy.
He added;
“This does not make us an “arbiter of truth.” Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions.”
The company also made a clarification on its decision to add a fact-checking link to two of Trump’s tweets.
It read;
“We added a label to two @realDonaldTrump Tweets about California’s vote-by-mail plans as part of our efforts to enforce our civic integrity policy. We believe those Tweets could confuse voters about what they need to do to receive a ballot and participate in the election process.”
On Wednesday evening, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters President Trump would soon sign an executive order “pertaining to social media,” widely expected to be a shocking though likely unsubstantial strike back at Twitter’s policy enforcement choices this week.
The order may rehash the White House’s previous stalled efforts to threaten Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a vital legal provision underpinning the modern internet and wielding power against social media companies through the FTC and FCC.
Ahead of the expected retaliation, Trump tweeted “Stay Tuned!!!” to his more than 80 million followers.
