Jack Dorsey says Trump fact-check does not make Twitter ‘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,” Dorsey tweeted Wednesday night.
Dorsey was responding to a firestorm of criticism the company has received from conservatives after Twitter began fact checking Trump, who is arguably its most prolific user. Trump has also threatened to take action against Silicon Valley.
The Twitter executive’s remarks also came just hours after Fox News posted part of an interview due to air Thursday with Mark Zuckerberg, in which the Facebook CEO explained why his company did not take action on Trump’s false posts about mail-in ballots.
The tweets in question falsely claimed that the governor of California was sending out mail-in ballots to “anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there.” Twitter labeled them with a message urging users to “Get the facts about mail-in ballots.” Twitter’s message directly linked to a curated fact-checking page populated with journalists and news article summaries debunking the claim.
“There is someone ultimately accountable for our actions as a company, and that’s me,” Dorsey said. “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.”
Twitter also defended Roth earlier Wednesday, saying that, “no one person at Twitter is responsible for our policies or enforcement actions, and it’s unfortunate to see individual employees targeted for company decisions.”
Dorsey, according to a Twitter spokesperson, did not make the decision to label Trump’s tweets. A Twitter spokesperson said the tweets contained “potentially misleading information about voting processes” and had been “labeled to provide additional context.”