Earlier today, Jack Dorsey announced that he’s decided not to be Twitter CEO anymore.
not sure anyone has heard but,
I resigned from Twitter pic.twitter.com/G5tUkSSxkl
— jack⚡️ (@jack) November 29, 2021
The new CEO referred to as “Parag” in Dorsey’s announcement is Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s erstwhile CTO.
Deep gratitude for @jack and our entire team, and so much excitement for the future. Here’s the note I sent to the company. Thank you all for your trust and support 💙 https://t.co/eNatG1dqH6 pic.twitter.com/liJmTbpYs1
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) November 29, 2021
Time to bust out the party hats yet?
Jack Dorsey's Twitter banned Trump while welcoming North Korean propaganda accounts, and inexcusably throttled the story about Biden family overseas business dealings.
But soon enough we're going to miss him.https://t.co/9M4n0XBdyl
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) November 29, 2021
While conservatives may be happy to see Jack Dorsey step down, it's unlikely his replacement — Parag Agrawal — will include intellectual diversity or free expression among his priorities.https://t.co/aWv3mSykqv
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) November 29, 2021
Twitter stockholders welcomed Dorsey’s departure, but some Twitter users found themselves less than thrilled. That’s because combing through some of Agrawal’s past remarks uncovered some less-than-inspiring material.
Like this, for example:
"If they are not gonna make a distinction between muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists."
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) October 26, 2010
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Huh.
I’m going to take this opportunity to remind you that you can follow me on Instagram (@bethanyshondark) if I don’t last on Twitter. The new CEO isn’t instilling confidence 👇 pic.twitter.com/NpuM0KhDLG
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) November 29, 2021
Incoming Twitter CEO. Go figure. https://t.co/QcfJl1IGQz
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) November 29, 2021
The new CEO of Twitter might have to roll back some old tweets there. pic.twitter.com/xQa0LZfgVd
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) November 29, 2021
Jack Dorsey had the luxury of being CEO of a company where he didn't have old tweets to find. https://t.co/U0THZw4F8N
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 29, 2021
Of course people are digging these up, lol. What did you expect was going to happen?
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 29, 2021
https://twitter.com/thomaschattwill/status/1465365959410135041
If Agrawal were to expand upon it, he’d likely point out that he was quoting “The Daily Show’s” Aasif Mandvi:
This tweet which is currently going viral among the right from Twitter's new CEO is him quoting a Daily Show segment that aired that night about stereotypes.
It's a joke about absurd stereotypes, not a factual statement. https://t.co/hhIdXTSiOHhttps://t.co/9bFtGrfExW
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) November 29, 2021
Providing that context, because none of the accounts sharing it acknowledge that. pic.twitter.com/kpFFPnyPSG
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) November 29, 2021
FYI, he even said in a subsequent tweet this was the case.https://t.co/JBiEK28Nxn
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) November 29, 2021
Here it is:
@Joylita I was quoting Asif Mandvi from The Daily Show. The article you are reading seems too deep for my current mental state.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) October 26, 2010
That’s a fair defense, if we’re being honest.
completely aside from the point that the context of this quote is that it comes from a Daily Show segment, it seems pretty clear to me that Parag agrees with the notion that not all Muslims are extremists and that not all white people are racist. https://t.co/9B1XYIYo1t
— Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) November 29, 2021
For those who need help, a pretty simple interpretation of this tweet is that it is *not* a tweet about white people being racists. It is a tweet about how stupid it is to apply sweeping negative stereotypes based on superficial assignments. https://t.co/Da3gKFTidW
— Bryan S. Myrick (@BryanMyrick) November 29, 2021
OK. We can certainly accept that. But it’s also not unreasonable to ask questions.
So, the context here is that he's quoting a guy who was on the Daily Show. While this means it's not Agrawal's own words, I'm curious as to why he thought this quote worth tweeting out. https://t.co/BJXYo3FHTT
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) November 29, 2021
Like, it seems reasonable to ask Agrawal questions about this:
Here's how Twitter's new CEO defined "misinformation" in a 2020 interview: "Focused way less on what's true and false" and "way more on certain content being amplified without appropriate context."
Misinformation will be things that are true but Twitter decides needs context pic.twitter.com/DDTYO45KRW
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 29, 2021
That’s not Agrawal quoting someone from “The Daily Show” or anything else. Those are his own words.
And we’d say those words merit an explanation.
Ok, this is a little scary from the new CEO of Twitter: “We focused way less on what’s true or what’s false. We focus way more on potential for harm.”
No, sir: please just focus on the truth and let the rest of us decide. pic.twitter.com/0BGSDyKr0L
— Thomas Chatterton Williams (@thomaschattwill) November 29, 2021