Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has suggested that current Twitter trends are similar to those during the Arab Spring, where social media aided the revolutionary uprisings that led to the overthrow of multiple governments and civil wars across the Middle East.
In remarks obtained by Fortune at a technology conference hosted by Goldman Sachs, Dorsey said that a “lot of the same patterns we’ve seen during the Iranian Green Revolution and the Arab Spring. It was stunning to see how Twitter was being used to have a conversation about the government, with the government,” he continued.
The Arab Spring, which started in 2010, initiated the overthrow of governments in Egypt and Tunisia but also led to the civil wars currently raging in Syria and Yemen.
“As a culture in the U.S., we’ve focused on things that didn’t matter as much. Now, everything is brought into perspective, and Twitter is at the center of the most important conversations,” Dorsey continued.
Dorsey has made little secret of his left-wing tendencies and disapproval of Donald Trump in the past year. Following Trump’s executive order temporarily halting immigration from seven terror-prone countries, Dorsey donated $530,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in response.
The Twitter CEO has also previously aligned with social justice-driven groups such as Black Lives Matter, with his platform waging war against conservative media. Last July, he permanently banned Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos from the platform.
You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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