Twitter CEO says tech companies have not combated abuse enough

Progress has been ‘scattered’, says Jack Dorsey in interview by tweet

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey. Photograph: Chris Wattie/Reuters
Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey. Photograph: Chris Wattie/Reuters

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey said Silicon Valley companies, including his own, have not done enough to protect victims of online abuse, calling it a "huge fail."

Interviewed via Twitter by Kara Swisher, co-founder of the tech news site Recode, Mr Dorsey tweeted that he would give himself a "C" grade for what Ms Swisher termed "tech responsibility."

“We’ve made progress, but it has been scattered and not felt enough,” he tweeted in response to Ms Swisher’s questions. “Changing the experience hasn’t been meaningful enough. And we’ve put most of the burden on the victims of abuse (that’s a huge fail).”

Twitter, along with online social media network Facebook, has faced criticism for abusive posts, fake users and inaccurate news stories on its service. The company has been investing heavily to improve what Mr Dorsey has described as the "collective health" of Twitter.

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Mr Dorsey said on Tuesday that he does not like how Twitter tends to incentivise outrage, short-term thinking, echo chambers, and fragmented conversations, and that the lack of diversity in the company has not helped in combating such problems.

He said Twitter’s work against “automations and co-ordinated campaigns,” along with its collaboration with various government agencies, has left it in a better position to combat the threat of misinformation for the 2020 US presidential elections.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia used social media during the 2016 US elections to sway voters. Moscow denies that charge. – Reuters