Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey had a few thoughts to share after New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said she’d be scaling back her use of the platform in a major way, calling it an “anger video game.”
Twitter has “stopped being a place where I could learn things I didn’t know,” Haberman wrote on Saturday. Instead, its full of “toxic partisan anger, intellectual dishonesty, motive-questioning and sexism.” Haberman — who has become one of the most prominent reporters in the country while covering the Trump White House — said she will be stepping away from Twitter, except when it comes to posting breaking news or her own stories.
Dorsey noticed Haberman’s column, and responded to several points in a Twitter thread this weekend. Twitter’s ability to amplify outrage is “def a problem,” wrote Dorsey. The exec responded to Haberman’s criticism that Twitter is a place where nuance and “thoughtful discussion” go to die, saying this is “what we’d like to fix the most.”
Dorsey said the company needs to focus more on “conversational dynamics,” and pointed to several areas it can improve, including organizing and giving more context to tweets. Twitter can also do a better job of identifying a user’s credibility, according to Dorsey. Haberman had said Twitter’s strength — it’s ability to give everyone a voice — had also become a negative, where users are treated as experts on a wide swath of topics.
On the complaint people are tweeting more, forcing users to routinely log back into “the Matrix,” Dorsey pointed to the platform’s ranking algorithm as a sign the company wants to streamline its feed. Twitter ranks tweets based on a combination of breaking news, as well as accounts and comments users have interacted with in the past. Still, there is “lots of work still to do,” according to Dorsey, when it comes to creating a better user experience.
“There is an important discussion about journalism that must take place, including about how all of us performed during the 2016 campaign, but Twitter is not where a nuanced or thoughtful discussion can happen.”
Dorsey’s response comes as Twitter continues to make critical changes to its platform. The exec had reached out to users in March, saying the company wanted to improve the “health of public conversation” on the app. Hiding troll tweets, a move introduced in May, is one way Twitter is looking to make its platform less of a breeding ground for internet bullies. Twitter has also been booting millions of bots in recent months, with 70 million fake accounts deleted between May and June.
Still, there’s “challenging work” ahead for Twitter, said Dorsey, in making the platform a place where famous reporters don’t want to run away from.
James Woods' 12 Most Outrageous and Provocative Comments (Photos)
James Woods has a reputation for being one of Hollywood's most vocal conservatives. He's suggested that sharing his opinions on Twitter have taken him from a Hollywood A-lister, starring in films including "Casino," "Videodrome" and "Vampires," to being "blacklisted." On July 4, 2018, Woods' agent dropped him in an email, which the actor then shared on Twitter. “It’s the 4th of July and I’m feeling patriotic. I don’t want to represent you anymore. I mean I could go on a rant but you know what I’d say,” the email read. Woods proceeded to label his former agent a "political liberal" and let him know how he felt. But this exchange is just another in a long list of provocative opinions from the actor, many of which have sparked outrage on both sides of the political spectrum.
Woods took aim several times at Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson after her criticism of President Trump over what she referred to as his insensitive condolence call to a widow of a fallen veteran. In October 2017, Woods tweeted a photo of Wilson wearing a cowboy hat as "#ParasiteRodeoClown" and said that liberals wheeled out "clowns dressed as saloon hookers" as a distraction from the news.
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Woods has been a longtime supporter of Donald Trump, but even he called for the president to toughen up and asked for the President to "unleash the dogs of war." In a list of issues he said were affecting America, Woods tweeted in February, “Dear Mr. President, when will you get a Department of Justice with teeth? Voter fraud, criminal ‘sanctuary’ hideouts, mass illegal invasion, the opioid epidemic, gang murders, drug cartels are all rotting the soul of our blessed America. Unleash the dogs of war, sir. It is time.” What he left out from his list was any mention of school shootings. Also, Woods' tweet happened to be the same day that Trump met with victims of the Parkland shooting and lawmakers to address the issue.
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Woods ripped Google in April, saying that it "loathes Christians" after he noticed that there was no animated Doodle on its homepage celebrating Easter. The company issued a statement saying, "We don’t have Doodles for religious holidays, in line with our current Doodle guidelines."
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In July 2015, Woods filed a $10 million lawsuit against Twitter user "Abe List," who frequently trolled Woods online, but specifically over an insult that referred to Woods as a "cocaine addict." List called for the case to be thrown out, saying Woods was "like a bully who can dish it out but can’t take it." Woods attempted but failed to discover List's real identity. But then in a bizarre twist, the person who Woods sued died, and Woods took a victory lap by gloating and mocking the man's attorney, Lisa Bloom. Woods eventually dropped the lawsuit in 2017.
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In September 2017, Woods compared "Call Me by Your Name" to "NAMBLA" when he learned that the gay romantic drama involved an affair between a teenager and a 24-year-old. "As they quietly chip away at the last barriers of decency. #NAMBLA," Woods tweeted, referring to the critics championing the movie. The film's star, Armie Hammer, shot back at Woods and said, "Didn't you date a 19-year-old when you were 60?"
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After Armie Hammer called out Woods, actress Amber Tamblyn accused Woods of trying to pick up her and a friend when she was just 16. Woods called Tamblyn's claim "a lie," which led to an extended feud between the two actors.
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Anderson Cooper was criticized for rolling his eyes at Kellyanne Conway during an interview in May 2017. Woods escalated the situation with a homophobic "joke" by sharing a gif of the CNN host rolling his eyes and wrote that the expression was "as his butt plug dislodges during a newscast."
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Neil Patrick Harris called out Woods for his comments on a photo of a family posing with their "gender creative" son. "This is sweet. Wait until this poor kid grows up, realizes what you’ve done, and stuffs both of you dismembered into a freezer in the garage,” Woods said of the photo in July 2017. Harris called Woods "ignorant and classless," but Woods clarified his stance and said, "Using one’s child as a social justice propaganda doll is tantamount to child abuse. This is not about homophobia. Nice try though…,” and added that he has "more gay friends than Liberace."
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In the wake of Matt Lauer's ouster from "Today" in November 2017, Woods suggested that firing high profile media figures wasn't the result of the #MeToo movement, but rather was a way for companies to cut costs and save money. “Are big corporations using these unsubstantiated allegations as an easy way to dump expensive star contracts?” he wrote. Woods then said his tweet wasn't directly in reference to Lauer, and that he made similar claims after Bill O'Reilly was fired.
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Woods took a stand against Twitter in November 2016 when the company tried to ban accounts associated with the alt-right. “Since @Twitter is now in the #censorship business, I will no longer use its service for my constitutional right to free speech,” Woods wrote. Though he said he'd leave the social media platform, ultimately, his self-imposed ban didn't last.
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In August 2017, the President took to Twitter to tout his "excellent" job numbers and retweeted several followers and Fox News segments. Among those retweets was Woods, who said that those who hate the president do so pathologically. "I've never witnessed such hatred for a man who is willing to work for free to make his beloved country a better place. It is pathological," Woods wrote.
Woods set aside partisan politics to surprisingly defend President Obama in September 2016. Responding to a user who tweeted "we must kill and eat Obama," Woods tweeted at Obama's Secret Service, saying, "You might be interested in this person. I may disagree with #Obama on virtually everything. To threaten his life allegedly in jest is appalling and a federal felony @SecretService,” the actor tweeted.
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From feuds with Amber Tamblyn to Neil Patrick Harris to anonymous, deceased Twitter trolls
James Woods has a reputation for being one of Hollywood's most vocal conservatives. He's suggested that sharing his opinions on Twitter have taken him from a Hollywood A-lister, starring in films including "Casino," "Videodrome" and "Vampires," to being "blacklisted." On July 4, 2018, Woods' agent dropped him in an email, which the actor then shared on Twitter. “It’s the 4th of July and I’m feeling patriotic. I don’t want to represent you anymore. I mean I could go on a rant but you know what I’d say,” the email read. Woods proceeded to label his former agent a "political liberal" and let him know how he felt. But this exchange is just another in a long list of provocative opinions from the actor, many of which have sparked outrage on both sides of the political spectrum.
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