Conservative political operative Ali A. Akbar met with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey this week to discuss the future of conservatives on the social media platform.
“The CEO of Twitter and Square, Jack Dorsey, and I have been talking for the past several months,” declared Akbar in a statement. “I personally like him, but that matters less than the talks we’re having about a shared future where people with different beliefs can exist on the same platform. This is experimental. This is new. We have a goal for an outcome but we have to find a way there.”
“Twitter should belong to everyone. Cohabitation will require new methods from all of us,” he continued, adding, “I appreciate @Jack listening to some of my concerns affecting conservatives on the most important communications platform in the world, Twitter.”
In a separate post on Twitter, Akbar added, “We are going to continue this conversation over the next months, even years.”
“Past wrongs and misunderstandings don’t have to determine our shared future,” he expressed. “Let’s experiment and journey toward coexistence instead of thinking it can be an immediate outcome.”
We are going to continue this conversation over the next months, even years.
Past wrongs and misunderstandings don’t have to determine our shared future.
Let’s experiment and journey toward coexistence instead of thinking it can be an immediate outcome. $TWTR
— Ali Alexander 🇺🇸 (@ali) February 14, 2018
In an interview with Breitbart Tech, Akbar claimed, “I think Jack is open to building a more transparent system, which will give us a chance to point, more concretely, to systems that punish right-wing thought.”
“He also spoke about automating some systems so there was less human involvement. I expressed that there’s a lot of implicit bias going on within Twitter. That type of subconscious-level thought that leads to action is less malicious than some of the more overt actions some team members have taken,” he continued. “He also stressed that mistakes had been made and Twitter needs to serve everyone going forward. He’ll have to figure out how to get there.”
“I brought up problems, disportionately affecting conservatives, with the verification process, shadowbanning, descriptions written by Twitter’s editorial team for trending topics, and search,” explained Akbar. “To Jack’s credit, he went through and explained his perspective, even giving me details on how some of the tech works. Regarding suspensions, he’s still figuring that out and that’s going to be a serious part of our conversations going forward. I’m passionate about not forcing people into what I call the ‘dark alleys’ of the internet, which only furthers the divide.”
Akbar also discussed his meeting with Dorsey further in a Periscope video, where he declared, “My friends have been banned. Roger Stone, … and other people. So that is what it is, but here’s the important thing that’s happening.”
“I’m not telling anyone the way to the future. What I’m saying is for me, someone who has been at the national level of the conservative movement for eleven years, I have a calling on my life, and this is my community. This is my community. And I’m going to protect my community with the best of my abilities,” Akbar claimed. “I’m not an investigative journalist, I’m not a provocateur. I’m not going to get over here and cuss out Jack Dorsey, or protest in front of the Twitter headquarters. That’s not me… If somebody wants to do that, they can do that. What I’m going to do is I’m going to continue to talk with Twitter. They have now opened up a dialogue in which is unfettered. Anytime I have a suggestion or a complaint, I’m going to toss it up to them.”
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.
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