Twitter Co-Founder: I Thought Free Speech Could Make the World a 'Better Place', 'I Was Wrong'

Twitter co-founder and Medium creator Evan Williams criticized the concept of free speech during an interview with The New York Times on Saturday.

In the article, Williams claimed he “was wrong” about his original view that freedom of expression made the world a “better place.”

“I think the internet is broken,” said Williams. “And it’s a lot more obvious to a lot of people that it’s broken.”

“I thought once everybody could speak freely and exchange information and ideas, the world is automatically going to be a better place… I was wrong about that,” he continued.

During the interview, Williams also apologized on Twitter’s behalf for President Donald Trump’s use of Twitter.

Referencing comments made by President Trump in March, when he said, “I think that maybe I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Twitter,” Williams proclaimed “it’s a very bad thing, Twitter’s role in that.”

“If it’s true that he wouldn’t be president if it weren’t for Twitter, then yeah, I’m sorry,” he expanded.

As reported on Saturday by Breitbart Tech’s Lucas Nolan, “Williams also spoke at a commencement speech at the University of Nebraska, commenting on Silicon Valley’s arrogance at times, stating that the industry can think of themselves as, ‘a Prometheus, stealing fire from selfish gatekeeper gods and bestowing it on mere mortals.’

He continued to say “What we tend to forget is that Zeus was so pissed at Prometheus that he chained him to a rock so eagles could peck out his guts for eternity.” Williams said, “some would say that’s what we deserve for giving the power of tweets to Donald Trump.”

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.