Tech

Jack Dorsey admits a link between Twitter activity and physical danger to people

Key Points
  • Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Tuesday that he recognizes there is a link between activity on his social network and real life danger to people.
  • Dorsey made the comment during an interview on Twitter.  
CEO of Twitter, Jack Patrick Dorsey, speaks during an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times at Twitter India office, at the Crescent, on November 14, 2018 in New Delhi, India.
Burhaan Kinu | Hindustan Times | Getty Images

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Tuesday that he recognizes there is a link between activity on his social network and real life danger to people.

The tech executive made his comments while discussing Twitter's efforts to reduce harassment on the service and promote "healthy conversation" during in an interview conducted on Twitter with Recode's Kara Swisher. During the conversation, Dorsey said Twitter's top priority is focusing on users' physical safety.

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Dorsey said the company is putting in place mechanisms that will reduce the probability of Twitter users experiencing offline physical harm as a result of what others see on the service. Dorsey listed coordinated harassment campaigns and doxxing, which is the online publication of one's private identifiable information, as examples of physical dangers Twitter is working to reduce.

"So you do see the link between what you do and real life danger to people? Can you say that explicitly?" Swisher asked in a tweet.

"I see the link, and that's why we need to put physical safety above all else. That's what we're figuring out how to do now. We don't have all the answers just yet. But that's the focus. I think it clarifies a lot of the work we need to do. Not all of it of course," Dorsey responded.

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Swisher asked if Twitter's lack of diversity was a cause for why the company has been slow to build features to protect users against harassment, to which Dorsey said that was "likely a reason."

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