Twitter users dug up a handful of tweets posted by the social media platform’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, leading to criticism of his comments.
One tweet in particular led people to accuse the tech giant of being “transphobic.” In a post from 2006 Dorsey called his airplane seat mate a “transvestite.”
“Sat next to a transvestite who immediately ordered a vodka lemonade. Interesting 5 hours,” Dorsey wrote.
Sat next to a transvestite who immediately ordered a vodka lemonade. Interesting 5 hours.
— jack (@jack) October 7, 2006
The attention comes just weeks after Twitter announced additional stipulations to its Hateful Conduct Policy meant to protect the transgender community. In addition to forbidding any “slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes,” the policy now includes restrictions on “misgendering” or “dead-naming” transgender individuals. (RELATED: Twitter Bans Misgendering Trans People. It’s Still Full Of Hardcore Porn)
An unidentified man holds a sign that reads “Trans Rights Are Human Rights” at the Women’s March on New York City on January 21, 2017 in New York. Shutterstock/Justin Starr
Another Dorsey tweet that began to circulate Sunday morning appears to match up to an old picture of him with a white man who is wearing a durag and makeup that some are calling blackface.
The tweet suggests that Dorsey himself was involved in the creation of this “costume.”
“Adam bought a durag and $40 worth of makeup: costume complete,” Dorsey wrote.
Adam bought a durag and $40 worth of makeup: costume complete.
— jack (@jack) November 1, 2006
Would Twitter founder @jack ban himself and his friends? https://t.co/2TCcfJNqvn pic.twitter.com/EKOf6edEOt
— ???? Nerd City ???? (@thenerdcity) December 9, 2018
But it’s not just Dorsey’s old tweets that have put him in hot water. A thread posted by the CEO Sunday describing a recent meditation trip he took to Myanmar that has gotten him accused of being insensitive and “tone-deaf.”
Users complained that he lauded the country as a tourist destination, without making any mention of the enormous humanitarian crisis going on there. Critics quickly picked apart the thread, noting Dorsey’s neglect to mention the ongoing genocide of the Rohingya people in the area.
Jack making tourism in Myanmar rn is a perfect metaphor for the way tech companies have thrown gasoline on the mess we’re in. https://t.co/aK4xrUTZz7
— Emma Beals (@ejbeals) December 9, 2018
During a trip to India last month, Dorsey inadvertently started a “Twitter caste war,” when a picture of him holding a placard that said “Smash Brahminical Patriarchy” began to circulate. While those who passionately oppose the Hindu caste system and the “patriarchy” were encouraged by the image, others said the specification of “Brahminical” gave the sign’s message a new, bigoted meaning.
Anti-Brahmin political propaganda from India and Anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda… Prof @VishwaAdluri has shown us the cruel and absurd origins of this anti-brahmin bigotry which so many south asians too now blindly espouse… all from colonial european protestant antisemitism … pic.twitter.com/cCm9FjFu0t
— Vamsee Juluri (@VamseeJuluri) November 19, 2018
Woke up Tuesday morning to see Brahmin names floating around on my TL. If Smashing Brahminical Patriarchy is not an incitement to violence, what is? An influential platform like @twitter must be responsible. @TwitterIndia
— Chitra Subramaniam (@chitraSD) November 20, 2018
