Twitter may soon begin to open more on some of its most controversial decisions.
The company’s security team wants to start publishing public “case studies” explaining Twitter’s decisions to ban or suspend high-profile accounts, said Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s trusted security leader.
Speaking on Joe Rogan’s podcast on Tuesday, Gadde said he wants the reasoning behind Twitter’s decisions to be clearer to the public.
“We are thinking about doing something that we call case studies, essentially this is our case law, this is what we use and, therefore, the high profile cases, cases in which people ask us, how to actually publish this for that we can review you know, tweet by tweet like that “. she said.
“Because I think a lot of people just do not understand, and they do not believe us when we say these things to put them there so people can see and they can disagree with the calls we’re making.” but we want you to at least see why we make these calls. I want to start at least later this year. “
Although Gadde made no reference to any specific account that could be a candidate for public case studies, Twitter’s decision to ban Alex Jones and Jacob Wohl came up at other points in the discussion, which also included CEO Jack Dorsey and Tim Pool.
This would be a major change for the company. In the past, Twitter has insisted that its policy prevents it from commenting on individual accounts. For years, this was the standard response every time a reporter asked about something that had to do with a specific account, whether it was a suspension, a DMCA removal or anything else. Critics have said that this policy allows Twitter to act without having to explain controversial decisions.
And, just two weeks ago, the company told Reuters it does not comment on specific accounts for “privacy and security reasons.”
That has begun to change more recently, for example, Twitter posted on Twitter about its decision to ban Alex Jones, but the company has still refused to discuss specific tweets. However, on Tuesday, Gadde recited several specific tweets when asked about the measures taken against Carl Benjamin, the right-handed YouTuber known as Sargon of Akkad.
The discussion, along with Gadde’s comments on public case studies, seems to suggest that Twitter has been reconsidering the “do not comment on individual accounts” policy, at least in some cases. The company used the excuse just two weeks ago, when it told Reuters it does not comment on specific accounts for “privacy and security reasons,” in response to a story about an Indian journalist facing harassment.
I asked Twitter to clarify the policy and a spokesperson said the company is looking to increase transparency in relation to its product, policies and processes.
That does not explain much (it’s ironic for a company trying to increase transparency), but Gadde’s comments are much clearer. She said her intention is to start publishing case studies by the end of the year.
And although we still do not know exactly how they will be, that would give a new window to the decision making of Twitter.
