Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admits twitter creates isolation

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey thinks that the social media company is contributing to the polarisation of people by forming filter bubbles’ which end up restricting a user’s access to information they do not agree with and thus silencing opposing viewpoints.

Mr. Dorsey, who spoke on October 15 at a conference honouring the 25th anniversary of tech magazine Wired, said the problem is one that is an unintended consequence of the root formation of Twitter and one that the social media company should rectify.

“I think Twitter does contribute to filter bubbles and I think that’s wrong of us, we need to fix it,” said Mr. Dorsey during the session with Wired editor-in-chief Nicholas Thompson that was streamed live on Facebook.

The Twitter CEO and Director said a potential solution to the problem would be to avail users the possibility of following topics rather than individuals.He gave an example of the Brexit vote in the UK, where those who followed only politicians/social commentators with whom they agreed with rarely got the chance to hear opposing views.

“If I’m following an account with a particular viewpoint versus the ability to follow a topic or interest or event … there might be a few tweets that counter it. We’re not giving them the tools to have the opportunity to break down the filter bubble,” he said.

Mr. Dorsey said that his team was bothered with the question of the current tools motivating users on Twitter. “Right now we have a big Like button with a heart on it and we’re incentivizing people to want it to go up and to get more followers. Is that the right thing? Versus contributing to the public conversation or a healthy conversation? How do we incentive healthy conversation?”

The man who sent out the first ever tweet in 2006 also talked about the problems brought about by the impact of social media on freedom of expression and free speech, saying “When we started the company, we weren’t thinking about this at all.”

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Mr. Dorsey said, “We believe our superpower is around conversation. It also comes with a realization that freedom of expression may adversely impact other human rights, such as privacy and security.”

The Twitter CEO also said that the company could only stand for freedom of expression if people feel safe to express themselves in the first place. “A lot of people come to Twitter and they don’t see a service. They see what looks like a public square and they have the same expectation as they have of a public square, and that is what we have to get right.”

When queried about whether Twitter would adopt the AI technology used by Instagram to detect and delete elements of cyber-bullying in comments, the Twitter CEO said his company would have to consider whether the AI interface had the capacity for explainability as to why tweets were being deleted.

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