Illustrative: A Twitter app on an iPhone screen. (AP/Richard Drew/File)
SAN FRANCISCO — A co-founder of Twitter says he’s sorry if the popular social media platform helped put Donald Trump in the White House, as the president has suggested.
In an interview with The New York Times, Evan Williams says Twitter’s role in Trump’s populist rise is “a very bad thing.”
The president has credited Twitter with his election to the highest office in the land.
When confronted with that notion, Williams said: “If it’s true that he wouldn’t be president if it weren’t for Twitter, then yeah, I’m sorry.”
The 45-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur also said the internet is obviously broken because it rewards extremes.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
FILE – In this Sept. 14, 2010 file photo, then Twitter CEO Evan Williams speaks at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
Williams also says he was wrong thinking that the world would be a better place if there was a platform for everyone to freely speak and exchange ideas.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.
Advertisement
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel