Jack Dorsey, the enigmatic founder of Twitter, gave an ominous warning on Thursday about the medium he helped create: social media.
Speaking at the 16th annual Oslo Freedom Forum, Dorsey explained that while people on opposing sides of political ideologies argue whether or not there should be free speech on social media, something even more important is at stake.
“This is going to sound crazy, but I think the free speech debate is a complete distraction right now,” he said, according to video of his comments.
“I think the real debate should be about free will. And we feel it right now, because we are being programmed based on what we say we are interested in … and we are told through these discovery mechanisms what we’re interested in,” he explains.
If this sounds a little far-fetched, think about it: You’ve undoubtedly seen suggestions online like, “Because you liked __, here’s something you might enjoy.” That’s an algorithm at work.
Dorsey continued, “As we engage and interact with this content, the algorithm continues to build more and more of this bias.”
In other words, do you really like the stuff you’re consuming on social media, or are you mindlessly scrolling and swiping only from what’s being fed to you?
“The algorithm … is effectively a black box,” Dorsey continued of the invisible formula behind your screen time. “You can’t predict … what it’s going to show you. … And because people become so dependent on it, it’s actually impacting the … free agency we’re having.”
Dorsey is hoping people get the “choice” to deploy their own algorithm, so they have more control in what they consume online.
For the record, Elon Musk, who bought Dorsey’s Twitter and rebranded it as X, reposted Dorsey’s comments, replying, “Yeah, Jack is right.”