Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Black Lives Matter leader DeRay Mckesson shared the stage during a Q&A session at Recode’s Code Conference this week to address the issue of partisan censorship on Dorsey’s social network.
Dorsey and Mckesson are alleged to be close allies and friends, and have been previously spotted together in numerous places. Twitter also reportedly donated to Mckesson’s mayoral campaign in March.
“I think a platform is best when it carries every voice,” claimed Dorsey in the Q&A session after being questioned on the topic of partisan favoritism. “I believe we need to build a platform that respects and amplifies every voice in a way that the world needs to hear it. I trust that the world will amplify and retweet and have conversations where appropriate.”
“And wherever that attention diverts in real time is where it’s needed,” he continued. “So I think a platform, in order to be a platform, has to be free to every opinion and every voice and I think we need to hear them all. We need to hear every extreme to find the balance.”
“I agree with Jack,” said Mckesson, who Recode reports has blocked over 19,000 people on Twitter. “It is better when we are exposed to as many ideas as possible… Not that I always want to be in proximity to them.”
Despite Dorsey’s alleged support for a neutral network, Twitter has been intensely scrutinized over the past year for what many have deemed as political censorship.
In January, Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos’ verification badge was removed by Twitter without reason.
Inside sources have also declared “shadowbanning,” a process of suppressing particular content without people realising it, to be a common practice at the social network.