Twitter co-founder Biz Stone is the latest to weigh in on the increasing power of social media, labeling it “scary.”
According to Bloomberg, the comments came in an interview for the Collision Conference. The conversation turned to Twitter’s ban of then-President Donald Trump, in the wake of the January 6 insurrection.
“It’s a scary amount of power,” Stone said. “The CEO of a company in San Francisco can quiet the president of the United States. He is not elected, nothing like that, and yet that had a major impact.”
At the same time, Stone believed Twitter made the right call, despite his reservations about it having the ability to take the action it did.
“It was a good decision for Twitter I think,” he added. “But it’s also a little bit frightening to know that maybe there’s that much power in one person’s decision.”
Stone’s comments illustrate the challenging tightrope social media platforms are walking right now, as they struggle to uphold freedom of speech, while cracking down on posts and comments that incite violence.