What’s wrong with Twitter’s self-righteous CEO, Jack Dorsey?

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Whether it’s Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg running his mouth off about the role white supremacists should play on his social network or Tesla’s Elon Musk talking about his inevitable mental breakdown, tech leaders of late have been all about discussing their feelings. The latest billionaire to jump on this odd right of passage is Twitter’s Jack Dorsey who’s on a self-righteous apology tour no one asked him to start.

In a long-ranging interview with Buzzfeed, the Twitter founder opines on everything from whether his company does participate in shadow banning to whether there’s a line Donald Trump could finally cross to get booted from the service. While reading the interview, I quickly concluded this guy wasn’t so much stating Twitter policy (written or otherwise) than rambling on about what he thinks about the world he believes he sees today. And naturally, he’s committed to fixing its ills.

While this blathering might sound intelligent and play well to the readers of Salon, I can’t imagine it will play well elsewhere.

Dorsey’s comments are littered with pithy comments like:

• “I want to acknowledge my bias and I also want to acknowledge there’s a separation between me and our company and how we act.”
• “There is more than one Twitter…but our product today doesn’t allow you to see that.”
• “Impartial meaning that we’re not going to inject our particular bias, impartial meaning that we’re not going to do improper actions to favor one person over another and I think it can exist with the right amount of transparency, but it’ll never be perfect, right.”

Does any of this make sense?

Words like “impartial” and “transparency” sound good until you realize they are inherently subjective.

Dorsey has every right to make his comments and given his position, every right to implement policies at Twitter. However, he should at least be honest about what he’s doing. The guy isn’t interested in keeping or maintaining something that fosters an even playing field where people across the political spectrum are given the same weight or standing. Instead, he’s picking and choosing what type of content is allowed and by who. Based on his feelings.

Can you imagine Steve Jobs launching new products and services based purely on emotion? How about Bill Gates?

What do you think? Do I see this correctly? Leave your comments below. 

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