Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: 'We Need to Do Better' to Protect Users
After the attacks on Leslie Jones, Jack Dorsey says things will change.
— -- Following "Ghostbusters" star Leslie Jones’ recent harassment on Twitter, the company's CEO Jack Dorsey acknowledged that things need to change.
“No one deserves to be the target of abuse on Twitter,” he said on a conference call with investors Tuesday. “We haven’t been good enough at ensuring that’s the case, and we need to do better.”
But Dorsey did acknowledge the delicate balance between controlling activity and safeguarding users’ right to speak freely. “We are not, and never will be, a platform that shows people only part of what’s happening,” he said, adding, “Abuse is not civil discourse.”
Jones, 48, faced a series of racist and offensive tweets last week, causing her to temporarily leave the social media site. The comedienne condemned Twitter for not doing more to protect its users against this type of hateful activity and only returned to Twitter after Dorsey intervened.
"We know many people believe we have not done enough to curb this type of behavior on Twitter. We agree," Twitter said in a statement immediately following the controversy. "We are continuing to invest heavily in improving our tools and enforcement systems to better allow us to identify and take faster action on abuse as it’s happening and prevent repeat offenders.”