Twitter co-founder Ev Williams says he is “sorry” that his social media site is responsible for President Donald J. Trump’s accession to the highest office in the land.
In an article published in The New York Times last Saturday, Williams lamented that the “internet is broken” because it rewards extreme behavior. The remark about Trump was in response to the President saying in March that he wouldn’t be president “if it wasn’t for Twitter.”
In reaction to that comment, Williams said, “It’s a very bad thing, Twitter’s role in that,” and that “if it’s true that he wouldn’t be president if it weren’t for Twitter, then yeah, I’m sorry.”
Williams was conducting the interview to promote his role in revamping the site Medium where he also gave his thoughts on his site’s role in promoting bad ideas, Williams compared Twitter and social media to “a road where everyone slows down to watch car crashes.”
But Williams and his team are working on making it a place for neutral speech and one that is less welcoming haven for those that use the medium to harass, berate and abuse others; or to spread dangerous messages of hate, extremism or as a tool to organize to hurt others.
This spring, Twitter introduced features to limit spam and harassment in hopes of avoiding so many of those horrible crashes Williams worry about.
h/t The Verge
