Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has promoted the idea of a “free and open protocol” for social media, following an Elon Musk-led internal investigation that uncovered censorship issues on the platform.
In his post, Dorsey outlined some potential solutions to Twitter’s current problems. According to the former Twitter CEO, this includes protection from corporate or government scrutiny, ensuring that content can only be removed by the original author, and implementing moderation through algorithmic selection.
“I’m a strong believer that any content produced by someone for the internet should be permanent until the original author chooses to delete it. It should be always available and addressable. Content takedowns and suspensions should not be possible,” he said.
Dorsey believes that Twitter has not lived up to the three principles that he mentioned, either under his leadership or in its current form, and reproached himself for not fighting for the platform.
“This is my fault alone, as I completely gave up pushing for them when an activist entered our stock in 2020. […] I planned my exit at that moment, knowing I was no longer right for the company,” he wrote.
Dorsey also pointed out that the biggest mistake Twitter had made was focusing on building tools to manage public discussions rather than building tools to let Twitter users manage them themselves. “It burdened the company with too much power,” he said, adding that the company was also subjected to outside pressure.
In the tweet, Dorsey also shared a GitHub link to a censorship-resistant open protocol currently under construction. The project, called “Transfer of Notes and Other Materials,” aims to create decentralized social networks based on cryptographic keys and signatures.