SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was working on a private island in French Polynesia, where celebrities escaped the paparazzi when a call interrupted him on January 6.
On the line was Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s leading lawyer and security expert, with an update from the real world. She said she and other executives of the company decided to temporarily close President Trump’s account, to prevent him from making statements that could provoke more violence after a mob stormed the U.S. capital that day.
Mr. Dorsey was concerned about the move, saying two people know of the call. For four years, he has resisted the demands of liberals and others that Twitter’s termination of Trump, arguing that the platform is a place where world leaders can speak, even if their views are appalling. But he made moderation decisions to me. Cade (46) delegated and usually postponed him – and he did it again.
Mr. Dorsey, 44, did not disclose his concerns. The next day he liked and shared various tweets in which he was wary of the permanent ban on Mr. Trump. During the next 36 hours, Twitter informed him of the suspension of Mr. Trump lifted to permanently shut down his account, and the president cut off from a platform he used, unfiltered, with not only his 88 million followers, but the world as well.
The decision was a hallmark of the Trump presidency, which immediately drew accusations of political prejudice and fresh scrutiny of the power of the technology industry over public talks. Interviews with a dozen current and former Twitter insiders over the past week have opened a window on how it was made – driven by a group of mr. Dorsey’s lieutenants who overcame their boss’ reservations, but only after a deadly hoax at the Capitol.
After the suspension was lifted the next day, Twitter responded to the tweets from Mr. Trump monitored the Internet, and executives told Mr. Dorsey informed that Mr. Trump’s followers have used his latest messages to demand more violence. In one post on the alternative social networking site Parler, members of Twitter’s security team saw Trump supporters urge militias to stop the elected president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., from entering the White House and fighting everyone trying to stop them. According to them, the potential for more unrest in the real world was too high.
Twitter was also under pressure from its employees, who had been excited for years about Mr. Remove Trump from the service, as well as lawmakers, technology investors and others. But while more than 300 employees have signed a letter stating that Mr. Trump’s bill should be stopped, the decision to ban the president was taken before the letter was handed to executives, two of the people said.
On Wednesday, Mr. Dorsey refers to the tension in Twitter. In a series of 13 tweets, he wrote that he ‘did not celebrate or feel proud that we should banish @realDonaldTrump“Because” a ban is a failure on our part to ultimately promote healthy conversations. ”
But Mr. Dorsey added: ‘It was the right decision for Twitter. We were faced with extraordinary and untenable circumstances, which forced us to focus all our actions on public safety. ”
Mr. Dorsey, me. Cade and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Since Mr. Trump is banned, many of Mr. Dorsey’s concern about the move realized. Twitter is embroiled in a furious debate over technological power and the lack of accountability of companies.
Lawmakers like Representative Devin Nunes, a California Republican, boasted about Twitter, while Silicon Valley venture capitalists, First Amendment scholars and the American Civil Liberties Union also criticized the company. At the same time, activists around the world accused Twitter of following a double standard by Mr. Trump cut off, but not autocrats elsewhere who use the platform to bully opponents.
“It’s a phenomenal exercise of power to deploy the President of the United States,” said Evelyn Douek, a lecturer at Harvard Law School that focuses on online speech. “It should give a broader account.”
Mr. Trump, who joined Twitter in 2009, was a privilege for the company. His tweets attracted attention on Twitter, which sometimes struggled to attract new users. But his false allegations and threats online have also caused critics to say that the website enables him to spread lies and provoke harassment.
Many of Twitter’s more than 5,400 employees were opposed to Mr. To have Trump on the platform. In August 2019, shortly after a gunman killed more than 20 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Twitter convened a staff meeting to discuss how the gunman in an online manifesto shared many of the views expressed by Mr. Trump posted on Twitter, echoed.
At the meeting, called ‘Flock Talk’, some employees said that Twitter was ‘complicit’ by Mr. Give Trump a megaphone to ‘whistle’ his supporters, two participants said. The employees begged managers to make changes before more people got hurt.
Over time, Twitter has become more proactive about political content. In October 2019, Dorsey stopped all political advertising on the site, saying he was concerned that such advertisements “have important consequences that the democratic structure of today may not be prepared to deal with.”
But Mr. Dorsey, a proponent of freedom of speech, did not want to take down world leadership because he considered it newsworthy. As Twitter announced that year that it would give more space to world leaders violating its rules, the company deleted their tweets only once: last March, it deleted messages from the presidents of Brazil and Venezuela promoting counterfeit drugs for the coronavirus . Mr. Dorsey opposed the removal, a person with knowledge of his thinking said.
Mr. Dorsey insisted on an interim solution: add tags to tweets by world leaders if the reports violate Twitter policy. In May, when Mr. Trump tweeted inaccurate information about the entries, Mr. Dorsey gave the voice to Twitter to label the president’s messages.
After the election on November 3, Mr. Trump tweeted that it was stolen from him. According to a New York Times version, within a few days, Twitter had tagged about 34 percent of its tweets and retweets.
Then came the Capitol storm.
When Congress convened on January 6 to confirm the election, Twitter executives celebrated their acquisition of Ueno, a branding and design firm. Mr. Dorsey, who often went on retreats, traveled to the South Pacific island, people said, knowing his location.
When Mr. Trump used Twitter to address Vice President Mike Pence and question the election result, the company added warnings to his tweets. When violence broke out at the Capitol, people encouraged Twitter and Facebook to arrest Mr. To take Trump completely offline.
This has led to virtual conversations among some of Mr. Dorsey’s lieutenants. The group has me. Gadde, a lawyer who joined Twitter in 2011, included; Del Harvey, vice president of trust and security; and Yoel Roth, Head of Website Integrity. Mrs. Harvey and Mr. Roth helped build the company’s responses to spam, harassment and election interference.
The managers decided to hire Mr. To suspend Trump because it appears his comments are inciting the mob, say those with knowledge of the discussions. Mrs. Gadde then called Mr. Dorsey called, who was not satisfied, they said.
Mr. Trump is not completely excluded. If he removed a few tweets that ignited the mob, a cooling-off period would be 12 hours. Then he could post again.
After Twitter the account of Mr. Trump closed, Facebook did the same. Snapchat, Twitch and others also have Mr. Trump limited.
But Mr. Dorsey is not on a permanent ban from Mr. Trump does not sell. He emailed employees the next day, saying it was important for the company to stay in line with its policies, including getting a user back after a suspension.
Many workers, for fear that history would not look at them kindly, were dissatisfied. Several called for IBM’s cooperation with the Nazis, say current and former Twitter employees, and began a petition to immediately open the account of Mr. To remove Trump.
The same day, Facebook Mr. Trump banned at least at the end of his term. But he returned to Twitter that evening with a video saying there would be a peaceful transition of power.
By the next morning, Mr. However, Trump is busy again. He tweeted that his base would have a ‘BIG VOICE’ and that he would not attend the inauguration on January 20th.
The security team of Twitter immediately saw that Trump supporters, who said the president had left them, spoke a message about further unrest. In a Parler message that the security team judged, one user said that anyone who opposed “American patriots” like him should leave Washington or risk bodily harm during the inauguration.
The security team has begun compiling an analysis of the tweets and whether this is a reason for Mr. To kick Trump off.
That day in San Francisco, Mr. Dorsey called for an employee meeting. Some have pointed out to him why Trump was not permanently banned.
Mr. Dorsey reiterated that Twitter should be in line with its policies. But he said he drew a line in the sand that the president could not cross, or that Mr. Trump would lose his account privileges, people with knowledge of the event said.
After the meeting, Dorsey and other executives agreed that Trump’s tweets this morning – and the responses they provoked – crossed that line, people said. The employee letter asking for Trump to be removed was later delivered.
Within hours, Trump’s bill was gone, except for a label ‘Account Suspended’. He tried to tweet from the @POTUS account, which is the official account of the US president, as well as others. But at every turn, Twitter frustrated him by pulling down the messages.
Some Twitter employees, for fear of angering the supporters of Mr. Trump, has now set up their Twitter accounts privately and named their employer from online biographies, four people said. Several drivers were given personal security.
Twitter has also broadened its action against accounts that promote violence. Over the weekend, it removed more than 70,000 accounts that drove the QAnon conspiracy theory, claiming that Mr. Trump fights a cabal of satan-worshiping pedophiles.
Two participants almost met on Wednesday to discuss the decision to replace Mr. To ban Trump, to discuss. Some were grateful that Twitter had taken action, while others were eager to leave the Trump era behind. Many were emotional; some cried.
That afternoon, Mr. Trump returned to Twitter and this time used the official @WhiteHouse account to share a video in which he said he condemned violence – but also condemned what he calls restrictions on freedom of speech. Twitter allowed the video to stay online.
An hour later, Mr. Dorsey tweeted his discomfort over the removal of Trump’s online accounts. It ‘sets a precedent that I feel is dangerous: the power that an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public discourse’, he wrote.
But he concluded: “Everything we learn at this moment will improve our efforts and move us to be who we are: one humanity working together.”