Inside Twitter's Decision to Cut Off Trump (NYT)

[underpants]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/technology/inside-twitter-decision-trump.html

On the line was Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top lawyer and safety expert, with an update from the real world. She said she and other company executives had decided to lock President Trump’s account, temporarily, to prevent him from posting statements that might provoke more violence after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol that day.

But Mr. Dorsey was not sold on a permanent ban of Mr. Trump. He emailed employees the next day, saying it was important for the company to remain consistent with its policies, including letting a user return after a suspension.


Many workers, fearing that history would not look kindly upon them, were dissatisfied. Several invoked IBM’s collaboration with the Nazis, said current and former Twitter employees, and started a petition to immediately remove Mr. Trump’s account.

After the meeting, Mr. Dorsey and other executives agreed that Mr. Trump’s tweets that morning — and the responses they had provoked — had crossed that line, the people said. The employee letter asking for Mr. Trump’s removal was later delivered, they said.

[cyclonefence]

1. These Tweet guys--and all Republicans who did not speak up

against Trump, and all social media that did not ban him *months* ago--are the creators of the mob of Jan. 6. Had they cut him off rather than noting that his posts were of questionable veracity--yet *left them up*--are as responsible as anyone for what happened.

[Mike 03]

2. Really interesting on a number of levels.

It had to be intense being part of the Trump Account safety team. You not only had to monitor Twitter; you had to monitor everything that was going on at Parler in response to Trump's outbursts:

Twitter’s safety team immediately saw Trump fans, who had been saying the president abandoned them, post about further unrest, said the people with knowledge of the matter. In a Parler message that the safety team reviewed, one user said anyone who opposed “American Patriots” like himself should leave Washington or risk physical harm during the inauguration.

The safety team began drafting an analysis of the tweets and whether they constituted grounds for kicking off Mr. Trump, the people said.

Around noon in San Francisco that day, Mr. Dorsey called in for an employee meeting. Some pressed him on why Mr. Trump was not permanently barred.