Twitter's New CEO & Censorship

Prior CEO: Jack Dorsey, the previous CEO and co-founder, oversaw Twitter's past censorship. As a co-founder and crypto-currency enthusiast, he expressed ethical concerns regarding censorship despite ultimately allowing it.

New CEO: Parag Agrawal, the new CEO, has been with Twitter for the past decade. He openly expressed his feelings about not focusing on free speech.

His AI background: Agrawal was responsible for Twitter's development of AI algorithms, which ultimately enabled mass censorship.

  • In 2017, AI-powered filters were activated to suspend users in masse.

  • AI algorithms also control the Twitter timeline, meaning that Twitter can and does censor users by hiding their content.

More censorship right after Dorsey's departure: Just a day after Dorsey's departure, Twitter expanded its privacy policy. Users can no longer share photos or videos of others without their consent, except for public figures. What does this mean?

  • Twitter will be able to decide who is a public figure or not, meaning they decide what is censored. It's just an addition to the privacy policy to not have to excuse continued censorship.

Will Twitter get worse? Without Dorsey, Twitter's censorship will get worse. He was a founder who had a sentimental attachment to Twitter. He also had moral issues with censorship. His runner-up seemingly doesn't.