Twitter’s new CEO Parag Agrawal has said that the social media platform’s content censorship should not be restricted by the First Amendment and that Twitter should “focus less on thinking about free speech.”
In a Nov. 18, 2020 interview with MIT Technology Review Editor-in-Chief Gideon Lichfield, Twitter’s then-Chief Technology Officer Agrawal was asked how Twitter can both censor so-called misinformation from its platform and still allow free speech.
“Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation, Agrawal replied. Instead, Twitter’s role is to “focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed,” he said:
“Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation and our moves are reflective of things that we believe lead to a healthier public conversation.
“The kinds of things that we do about this is, focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed.”
Because speech is so easy on the internet, Twitter emphasizes deciding “who can be heard,” Agrawal added:
“One of the changes today that we see is speech is easy on the internet. Most people can speak. Where our role is particularly emphasized is who can be heard.”
Twitter is increasing its influence over what content users see by wielding its power to “recommend content” and “direct people’s attention” to promote what it considers to be “healthy conversation,” Agrawal said:
“And so increasingly our role is moving towards how we recommend content and that sort of, is, is, a struggle that we're working through in terms of how we make sure these recommendation systems that we're building, how we direct people's attention is leading to a healthy public conversation that is most participatory.”
The full exchange is presented below:
Lichfield: “You're caught in a bit of a hard place as somebody in the audience is also pointing out, that you're trying to combat misinformation, you also want to protect free speech as a core value, and also in the U.S. as the first amendment. How do you balance those two?”
Agrawal: “Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation and our moves are reflective of things that we believe lead to a healthier public conversation. The kinds of things that we do about this is, focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed. One of the changes today that we see is speech is easy on the internet. Most people can speak. Where our role is particularly emphasized is who can be heard. The scarce commodity today is attention. There's a lot of content out there. A lot of tweets out there, not all of it gets attention, some subset of it gets attention. And so increasingly our role is moving towards how we recommend content and that sort of, is, is, a struggle that we're working through in terms of how we make sure these recommendation systems that we're building, how we direct people's attention is leading to a healthy public conversation that is most participatory.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
Editor's Note: This piece was originally published on CNSNews.com
