Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey warned employees that the recent crackdown on the social media giant after the U.S. Capitol riots will be “much bigger” than banning President Trump’s account.
Dorsey’s message during last Friday’s meeting was leaked to Project Veritas and a Twitter spokesperson has confirmed that it is authentic.
“We’re focused on one account right now, but it’s going to be a lot bigger than an account and it’s going to last a lot longer than just that day, this week and the next few weeks, and the inauguration will go further,” Dorsey said at the video meeting published Thursday by the Conservative outlet.
“Therefore, the focus is certainly on this account and its link with real-world violence. But we also need to think much more long-term about how these dynamics develop over time. I don’t think this will go away soon. “
Dorsey goes on to discuss the massive Twitter cleanup of 70,000 QAnon-related accounts following the deadly January 6 riot in Washington, DC – calling it “an example of this much broader approach that we should look at and go deeper “.
In an unprecedented move, Twitter outright banned Trump from the platform two days after the siege of the Capitol “because of the risk of further incitement to violence.”
“He won’t leave,” Dorsey warned during Friday’s meeting. “The United States is extremely divided. Our platform proves it every day. And our role is to protect the integrity of this conversation, and what we can do is make sure no one gets hurt about it. ”
James O’Keefe, who founded Project Veritas, known for its one-off operations against liberal organizations, said the video was recorded by an “information whistleblower” working on Twitter.
A Twitter spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the video on Fox News.
“The comments shown in the video were delivered to our more than 5,400 employees and are almost the same words Jack shared in a recent Tweet Thread that offered context and reflections on our work to protect the conversation of the past few weeks.” , said the spokesman.
On Wednesday, Dorsey explained Twitter’s decision to ban Trump in a long thread.
“I think that was the right decision for Twitter,” he tweeted. “We faced an extraordinary and unsustainable circumstance that forced us to focus all our actions on public safety. The damage offline as a result of online speech is demonstrable to be real, and what drives most of our policy and enforcement. “