Social media after Trump, with former Twitter VP Mike Davidson

Twitter didn't set out to ban Donald Trump. The president gave it no choice.

That's the assessment from Mike Davidson, a Seattle-based tech and media veteran who was Twitter's vice president of design from 2012 to 2016, sharing his perspective  as the guest commentator on this week's show.

"This was something that many employees wanted the company have wanted the company to do for a long time; I wanted the company to do this for a long time," Davidson said. "But the company itself is not out to get Donald Trump. If anything, they let him stick around on their platform for too long."

The breaking point was Trump's incitement of the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters.

"If you run one of these private companies, you have to ask yourself, 'Am I OK being complicit in an insurrection of the United States government? Am I OK with that?' ... The answer to that question has to be no," Davidson said. "There is no concept of of owning a platform and being able to stay neutral about something like that."

So what went wrong with social media? And where do we go from here? Those are some of the topics on this podcast discussion between Davidson and GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop.

Podcast produced and edited by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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