Responding to criticism from his recent trip to Myanmar, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said he\u2019s keen to learn about the country\u2019s racial tension and human rights atrocities, but it has emerged that both he and Twitter\u2019s public policy team ignored an opportunity to connect with a key ci\u2026<\/b>
\nResponding to criticism from his recent trip to Myanmar, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said he\u2019s keen to learn about the country\u2019s racial tension and human rights atrocities, but it has emerged that both he and Twitter\u2019s public policy team ignored an opportunity to connect with a key civic group in the country.
A loose group of six companies in Myanmar has engaged with Facebook in a bid to help improve the situation around usage of its services in the country \u2014 often with frustrating results \u2014 and key members of that alliance, including Omidyar-backed accelerator firm Phandeeyar, contacted Dorsey via Twitter DM and emailed the company\u2019s public policy contacts when they learned that the CEO was visiting Myanmar.
The plan was to arrange a forum to discuss the social media concerns in Myanmar to help Dorsey gain an understanding of life on the ground in one of the world\u2019s fastest-growing internet markets.
\u201cThe Myanmar tech community was all excited, and wondering where he was going,\u201d Jes Kaliebe Petersen, the Phandeeyar CEO, told TechCrunch in an interview. \u201cWe wondered: \u2018Can we get him in a room, maybe at a public event, and talk about technology in Myanmar or social media, whatever he is happy with?’\u201d
The DMs went unread. In a response to the email, a Twitter staff member told the group that Dorsey was visiting the country strictly on personal time with no plans for business. The Myanmar-based group responded with an offer to set up a remote, phone-based briefing for Twitter\u2019s public policy team with the ultimate goal of getting information to Dorsey and key executives, but that email went unanswered.
When we contacted Twitter, a spokesperson initially pointed us to a tweet from Dorsey in which he said: \u201cI had no conversations with the government or NGOs during my trip.\u201d
However, within two hours of our inquiry, a member of Twitter\u2019s team responded to the group\u2019s email in an effort to restart the conversation and set up a phone meeting in January.
\u201cWe\u2019ve been in discussions with the group prior to your outreach,\u201d a Twitter spokesperson told TechCrunch in a subsequent email exchange.
That statement is incorrect.
Still, on the bright side, it appears that the group may get an opportunity to brief Twitter on its concerns on social media usage in the country after all.
The micro-blogging service isn\u2019t as well-used in Myanmar as Facebook, which has some 20 million monthly users and is practically the de facto internet, but there have been concerns in Myanmar. For one thing, there was been the development of a somewhat sinister bot army in Myanmar and other parts of Southeast Asia, while it remains a key platform for influencers and thought-leaders.
\u201c[Dorsey is] the head of a social media company and, given the massive issues here in Myanmar, I think it\u2019s irresponsible of him to not address that,\u201d Petersen told TechCrunch.
\u201cTwitter isn\u2019t as widely used as Facebook but that doesn\u2019t mean it doesn\u2019t have concerns happening with it,\u201d he added. \u201cAs we\u2019d tell Facebook or any large tech company with a prominent presence in Myanmar, it\u2019s important to spend time on the ground like they\u2019d do in any other market where they have a substantial presence.\u201d
The UN has concluded that Facebook plays a \u201cdetermining\u201d role in accelerating ethnic violence in Myanmar. While Facebook has tried to address the issues, it hasn\u2019t committed to opening an office in the country and it released a key report on the situation on the eve of the U. S. mid-term elections, a strategy that appeared designed to deflect attention from the findings. All of which suggests that it isn\u2019t really serious about Myanmar.<\/p>\n