Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says 'we aren’t proud of how people have taken advantage of our service,' pledges big fixes (TWTR)
Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, acknowledged the frequent abuse of the microblogging platform this morning, and committed to improving the "health" of conversation on Twitter.
In a series of tweets, Dorsey explains that the social media giant is looking to create a "holistic system" for change, rather than simply troubleshooting the "the problematic parts."
Dorsey also announced a plan to recruit outside experts that can help measure and improve the "health" of conversation on Twitter, as well as report on its progress.
In a series of tweets, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted the social media giant "didn’t fully predict or understand the real-world negative consequences" of its platform, and invited help from users and experts to help correct the course.
"We have witnessed abuse, harassment, troll armies, manipulation through bots and human-coordination, misinformation campaigns, and increasingly divisive echo chambers," wrote Dorsey. "We aren’t proud of how people have taken advantage of our service, or our inability to address it fast enough."
Dorsey's admission comes on the heels of criticism of what many perceive to be Twitter's laissez-faire response to the hoaxes, conspiracy theories, misinformation, fake news, and Russia-linked bots that spreads through its network. Extremist political groups, including the so-called alt-right, rely on Twitter to recruit and spread.
Critics say that Twitter allows this behavior to carry on in the name of increasing user engagement with the platform, in a play to appease Wall Street investors. In his tweets, Dorsey disputes this characterization.
"While working to fix it, we‘ve been accused of apathy, censorship, political bias, and optimizing for our business and share price instead of the concerns of society. This is not who we are, or who we ever want to be," he wrote.
To help fix things, Dorsey says, Twitter is attempting to "increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation." He says that Twitter will move away from focusing its efforts on policing unwanted or illegal content, and towards encouraging the behaviors it considers more positive.
To that end, Dorsey called for for submissions for ideas to help identify, measure, and report the "health" of conversation on Twitter, offering "unrestricted" funding for the chosen contributor, as well as collaboration with the Twitter team to make it a reality.
This window to submit ideas will remain open until Friday, April 13, and Twitter says it plans to announce the first of the selected projects in July.
This announcement comes a week after Twitter's security team promised they would be taking steps to protect the survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida from online abuse and conspiracy theories.
Here's the full tweetstorm:
Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234275420655616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
We’re committing Twitter to help increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation, and to hold ourselves publicly accountable towards progress. Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234278167949313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Why? We love instant, public, global messaging and conversation. It’s what Twitter is and it’s why we‘re here. But we didn’t fully predict or understand the real-world negative consequences. We acknowledge that now, and are determined to find holistic and fair solutions. Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234279321419776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
We have witnessed abuse, harassment, troll armies, manipulation through bots and human-coordination, misinformation campaigns, and increasingly divisive echo chambers. We aren’t proud of how people have taken advantage of our service, or our inability to address it fast enough. Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234280655147008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
While working to fix it, we‘ve been accused of apathy, censorship, political bias, and optimizing for our business and share price instead of the concerns of society. This is not who we are, or who we ever want to be. Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234281653460992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
We’ve focused most of our efforts on removing content against our terms, instead of building a systemic framework to help encourage more healthy debate, conversations, and critical thinking. This is the approach we now need. Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234282706169856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Recently we were asked a simple question: could we measure the “health” of conversation on Twitter? This felt immediately tangible as it spoke to understanding a holistic system rather than just the problematic parts. Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234283633115137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
If you want to improve something, you have to be able to measure it. The human body has a number of indicators of overall health, some very simple, like internal temperature. We know how to measure it, and we know some methods to bring it back in balance. Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234284610428928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Our friends at @cortico and @socialmachines introduced us to the concept of measuring conversational health. They came up with four indicators: shared attention, shared reality, variety of opinion, and receptivity. Read about their work here: https://t.co/A12ZrACs8Z Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234285742866432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
We don’t yet know if those are the right indicators of conversation health for Twitter. And we don’t yet know how best to measure them, or the best ways to help people increase individual, community, and ultimately, global public health. Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234286770450432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
What we know is we must commit to a rigorous and independently vetted set of metrics to measure the health of public conversation on Twitter. And we must commit to sharing our results publicly to benefit all who serve the public conversation. Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234287881957376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
We simply can’t and don’t want to do this alone. So we’re seeking help by opening up an RFP process to cast the widest net possible for great ideas and implementations. This will take time, and we’re committed to providing all the necessary resources. RFP: https://t.co/SFb3e8joLl Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234289010315264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
We’re going to get a lot of feedback on this thread and these ideas, and we intend to work fast to learn from and share the ongoing conversations. @Vijaya, @mrdonut and I will do a Periscope next week to share more details and answer questions. Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/969234290910281728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Thanks for taking the time to read and consider, and also, come help us: https://t.co/KzlFJWLMjX
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