Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was on vacation when the social media giant made the decision to suspend the account of former President Donald Trump, part four of the "Twitter Files" revealed.
Substack writer and journalist Michael Shellenberger said that Dorsey was on vacation in the French Polynesia during the week of January 4-8, 2021, when the Twitter account of Trump was suspended.
Twitter announced the suspension of Trump's account on Jan. 8, 2021, citing "the risk of further incitement of violence." Shellenberger said Dorsey delegated much of the responsibility of the situations handling to Twitter's former Head of Trust & Safety, Yoel Roth, and former Head of Legal Policy and Trust Vijaya Gadde.
"Dorsey was on vacation in French Polynesia the week of January 4-8, 2021. He phoned into meetings but also delegated much of the handling of the situation to senior execs @yoyoel, Twitter’s Global Head of Trust and Safety, and @vijaya Head of Legal, Policy, & Trust," Shellenberger tweeted on Saturday.
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Dorsey emailed employees at Twitter on Jan. 7, 2021, stating that the company "needs to remain consistent in its policies, including the right of users to return to Twitter after a temporary suspension," Shellenberger said, paraphrasing the former Twitter CEO.
After Dorsey sent the email, Roth said in a Slack message that "people who care about this are thinking deeply about these problems and aren't happy with where we are.
Later on Jan. 7, 2021, Roth said in another Slack message that "Jack just approved repeat offender for civic integrity," Shellenberger revealed, showing that Roth shared a new five "strike" approach to permanent suspensions.
"Directional approach would be something like: Labels which are severe enough to result in disabled engagements incur strikes. Strike 1: Label only Strike 2: Label only Strike 3: Label + 12 hour timeout Strike 4: Label + 7 day timeout Strike 5: Perm Suspension," Roth said in a Slack message.
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"Progress," a Twitter employee responded to Yoel's Slack. "Does this affect our approach to Trump, who I think that we publicly said had one remaining strike? Or does the incitement to violence aspect change that calculus?"
Around 20 minutes after outlining the new approach to permanent suspensions, Roth said that "Trump continues to just have his one strike."
In the Jan. 8, 2021 announcement of Trump's suspension, a Twitter blog post stated that the company reviewed the former president's recent tweets "and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter."
"Due to the ongoing tensions in the United States, and an uptick in the global conversation in regards to the people who violently stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks. After assessing the language in these Tweets against our Glorification of Violence policy, we have determined that these Tweets are in violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy and the user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the service," Twitter wrote in the blog post.
Twitter Chief Elon Musk made the decision to restore Trump's Twitter account following poll on Nov. 18.
