Jack Dorsey Says ‘Communication’ Around Twitter’s Crackdown on New York Post Report Was ‘Not Great’
Olivier Doulery/AFP via Getty Images
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Wednesday night the site’s communication concerning its much-criticized crackdown on tweets sharing links to the New York Post report on Hunter Biden.
Twitter’s crackdown — which reportedly included people sharing links to the report publicly and in DMs, and apparently led to some accounts like the Post’s and Kayleigh McEnany’s being locked — received significant criticism from many media figures, including ones very skeptical of the sourcing of the report.
Hours later, Dorsey said in a tweet, “Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable.”
Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable. https://t.co/v55vDVVlgt
— jack (@jack) October 14, 2020
Dorsey shared a thread with a statement from Twitter trying to “provide much needed clarity”:
The images contained in the articles include personal and private information — like email addresses and phone numbers — which violate our rules.https://t.co/plPa5SZ3we
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 14, 2020
Commentary on or discussion about hacked materials, such as articles that cover them but do not include or link to the materials themselves, aren’t a violation of this policy. Our policy only covers links to or images of hacked material themselves.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 14, 2020
We know we have more work to do to provide clarity in our product when we enforce our rules in this manner. We should provide additional clarity and context when preventing the Tweeting or DMing of URLs that violate our policies.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 14, 2020
We recognize that Twitter is just one of many places where people can find information online, and the Twitter Rules are intended to protect the conversation on our service, and to add context to people’s experience where we can.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 14, 2020
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