Twitter Co-founder Jack Dorsey on Social Media's Role in Ferguson
By Steven Shapiro
Twitter co-founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey is using the platform he created to shed light on the Ferguson, Missouri, police shooting that left an unarmed black teenager dead. The incident has sparked more than a week of civil unrest throughout the city near St. Louis.
Dorsey is from St. Louis, so the story hits home for him. His tweets have been a mix of videos and snapshots illustrating the protests. He has also retweeted posts from political figures who have commented on the situation. In a recent interview with Yahoo News and Finance anchor Bianna Golodryga, Dorsey discussed the role Twitter plays in coverage of events and stories that people are talking about.
"You can just simply get out your phone wherever you are, and you can add to the conversation, you can read the conversations and you can contribute, and that was something that we always wanted to empower more. And fortunately the world wants the same thing."
Dorsey says platforms like Twitter are making the world a much smaller place.
"People want to feel like they're there, and they want that sense of connection, and it doesn't matter if there's a geographic boundary at all anymore."
Golodryga also spoke with him about his efforts to help close the gender gap in the tech community. His company, Square, runs code camps for young women who want to become programmers and engineers.
The full interview on Square's recent code camp will be featured as next week's "World 3.0" segment on Yahoo.
