Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey warned staffers that the social media giant’s recent crackdown after the US Capitol riots will be “much bigger” than just banning President Trump’s account.
Dorsey’s message during the meeting last Friday was leaked to Project Veritas, and a Twitter spokesperson has confirmed it is authentic.
“We are focused on one account right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account, and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, and the next few weeks, and go on beyond the inauguration,” Dorsey said in the video meeting published by the conservative outlet on Thursday.
“So, the focus is certainly on this account and how it ties to real-world violence. But also, we need to think much longer term around how these dynamics play out over time. I don’t believe this is going away anytime soon.”
Dorsey then goes on to discuss Twitter’s massive cleanup of 70,000 QAnon-related accounts in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6 riot in Washington, DC — calling it “one such example of a much broader approach that we should be looking at and going deeper on.”
In an unprecedented move, Twitter permanently banned Trump from the platform two days after the Capitol siege “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
“It’s not going away,” Dorsey warned during the Friday meeting. “The US is extremely divided. Our platform is showing that every single day. And our role is to protect the integrity of that conversation, and what we can do is make sure no one is being harmed based off that.”
James O’Keefe, who founded Project Veritas, known for its sting operations against liberal organizations, said the video was recorded by an “insider whistleblower” who works for Twitter.
A Twitter spokesperson confirmed the video’s authenticity to Fox News.
“The remarks shown in the video were delivered to our more than 5,400 employees and are nearly the same words Jack shared in a recent Tweet Thread offering context around and reflections on our work to protect the conversation in recent weeks,” the spokesperson said.
On Wednesday, Dorsey explained Twitter’s decision in banning Trump in a lengthy thread.
“I believe this was the right decision for Twitter,” he tweeted. “We faced an extraordinary and untenable circumstance, forcing us to focus all of our actions on public safety. Offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real, and what drives our policy and enforcement above all.”