Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey may not look it or like it, but he is a man with a great deal of power in his hands and responsibility on his shoulders.
Although – perhaps not quite to the over-the-top degree, as suggested by a recent huge profile of Dorsey published by Yahoo Finance under this headline: “Jack Dorsey: The enigmatic CEO who could save – or break – Western democracy.”
Twitter is certainly a social media giant attracting more direct politics and politicking that many other tech behemoths – but it’s still one significantly smaller than the likes of Facebook and Google when it comes to reach, and therefore influence. And the ability, therefore – to make or break anything on the internet.
Yet, at this time, there’s interest in a fine-grained profiling of Dorsey – and it might be a coincidence.
This comes as the Twitter – and Square – CEO has been in the news recently as promising his investors a further skewing of Twitter towards the echo-chamber of “conversations” of like-minded people – instead of providing its users with timely information from different sources – on top of more policing of speech.
This last point is quite forcefully urged and demanded by many governments and politicians, and certainly by traditional mainstream media.
But almost at the same time, it was revealed that Dorsey had chosen to, in the wake of a Democratic debate, make the largest allowed donation to – Tulsi Gabbard.
And even though he didn’t stray from the Silicon Valley’s “true path” of supporting Democrats – Gabbard is rational and basically the Democrat you support when you don’t dare support a non-Democrat – it’s perhaps a political cry for help from someone on the left.
She is an outspoken US army veteran who campaigns against corruption within her own party and interventionist wars abroad – and against online censorship.
For that last reason alone, many were left scratching their heads when Dorsey chose to vote for Gabbard with his wallet – while promising Twitter would incorporate more of the things Gabbard stands against.
Well – if the Yahoo Finance profile is anything to go by – Dorsey is a chief executive officer who struggles to make decisions – and possibly, to make up his mind – which might be one way to explain his apparent inability to choose between endorsing either censorship or free speech.
“Jack’s at a slower pace where he’s noticing things that the rest of us don’t notice. That’s extremely valuable to society. It’s like a Forrest Gump thing,” one unnamed source offered their squarely back-handed compliment.
Others still describe him as “introverted, conflict averse, speaking in riddles,” and, “not as aggressive as Facebook’s Zuckerberg or Google’s Page.”
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