Evan Williams takes a different line to Jack Dorsey on the company’ s role in creating President Trump., Apps<\/b>
\nEvan Williams takes a different line to Jack Dorsey on the company\u2019s role in creating President Trump. Earlier this month, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was pretty defiant about giving a platform to Donald Trump, despite accusations of him breaking the terms of service. \u201cI believe it\u2019s really important to hear directly from our leadership, \u201d he said. \u201cAnd I believe it\u2019s really important to hold them accountable. And I believe it\u2019s really important to have these conversations out in the open, rather than have them behind closed doors. So if we\u2019 re all to suddenly take these platforms away, where does it go? What happens? It goes in the dark. And I just don\u2019 t think that\u2019s good for anyone.\u201d Cynical types might argue that while it wouldn\u2019 t be good for anyone, it would be worst for Twitter, for whom Trump is a big-name draw. While the president writes the same kind of stuff on his Facebook, on Twitter it\u2019s less filtered and more outrageous. They even use the president on their Japanese advertising. Twitter Japan, now advertising on JR East trains using Trump Well, Twitter co-founder and former CEO Evan Williams \u2013 who still sits on the company\u2019s board of directors \u2013 is slightly more circumspect about social media\u2019s involvement in landing a politically inexperienced, volatile reality TV star in the most powerful office in the world. In an responding to Trump\u2019s own claim that he wouldn\u2019 t be in the White House without Twitter, Williams responded: \u201cIt\u2019s a very bad thing, Twitter\u2019s role in that. If it\u2019s true that he wouldn\u2019 t be president if it weren\u2019 t for Twitter, then yeah, I\u2019 m sorry.\u201d More generally, he thinks the internet is broken, and he takes some responsibility for that: \u201cI thought once everybody could speak freely and exchange information and ideas, the world is automatically going to be a better place. I was wrong about that.\u201d This isn\u2019 t a problem that\u2019s going to be fixed anytime soon: \u201cTwenty years isn\u2019 t very long to change how society works, \u201d he says. In the meantime, at least he\u2019 ll have plenty of case studies to work with. Trump\u2019s most defensive fans aren\u2019 t taking kindly to his words. Unfortunately, they\u2019 re sending abuse to the wrong Evan Williams. To all the angry Trump supporters calling me names: Guys. I didn’t create twitter. Wrong guy. Sure he can’t wait to hear your opinion tho. Which neatly demonstrates how Williams is onto something with the whole «broken internet» thing…<\/p>\n

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Sentiment rank: 0.8<\/div>\n

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