| Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey speaks during a press conference at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul, Friday. / Yonhap |
By Baek Byung-yeul
Twitter is trying to make more people join public conversation through the U.S.-based micro-blogging platform, as the firm believes the power of conversations will lead society to new heights, the CEO of the firm said Friday.
"We believe public conversation influences and drives society," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said during a press conference at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul adding that people can understand how a country and its people think about a certain topic through the public conversations and opinions on Twitter.
Giving examples of how conversations have helped society move in the right direction, Dorsey discussed the "School MeToo" movement, which was the most tweeted term in the social issues category here in 2018.
"#MeToo movement is something we are proud of ... people choosing Twitter to share their experiences," he said.
Dorsey stressed the firm will make its best effort to make the platform a place for healthy public conversations. "(The goal of) public conversation is to promote healthy conversation," Dorsey said, adding that Twitter utilizes cutting-edge technology such as machine learning to minimize such spread of false information.
The CEO also said K-pop has been a potent force to make the micro-blogging platform younger and more energetic.
There were about 5.3 billion tweets related to K-pop from across the world, which was five times more than the "game" category and nine times more than the "football" category even while the FIFA World Cup was being held in Russia.
This was his first visit to Korea in five years. During his two-day visit to Korea, Dorsey had a meeting at Cheong Wa Dae with President Moon Jae-in Thursday. Moon and Dorsey shared opinions about changes social media has brought to society and the future of digital communications.
After the press conference, Dorsey met with nonprofit organizations for women at Bongeun Temple. Nine officials from the Korea Women's Hot Line, the Korean Women's Association United, LifeLine Korea and Open Net joined the meeting and Dorsey listened to various opinions from those organizations.
To support nonprofit organizations, Twitter has operated a pro-bono ads program "Ads for Good" and distributed the profits to them.
His last scheduled meeting was with K-pop boy band GOT7 at Twitter Korea headquarters in Seoul, 6 p.m. Of the seven members, Mark, BamBam and Youngjae joined the meeting which was livestreamed. Twitter users also joined the meeting through Twitter hashtag #JACKmeetsGOT7.