When now-former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down from his position on Monday, a replacement was immediately announced. Parag Agrawal was named the new Twitter CEO, but that isn’t what people are talking about.
Now, usually I don’t get bogged down in what someone said 10 years. Heck, I don’t really care what someone said five years ago, unless it’s so egregious that it bears repeating. And I would never call for someone to get cancelled, and I’m not going to start here.
But a little over 11 years ago, Agrawal sent out a tweet that is garnering attention because of his appointment to head one of the largest social media platforms on the internet.
“If they are not gonna make a distinction between muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists,” Agrawal tweeted on October 26, 2010.
You can click the link above to view the actual tweet, but I take screenshots of tweets just in case someone get a little scared and deletes whatever tweet is bringing them unwanted attention.
First of all, Islam is not a race. It's a religion. I can't believe I have to make that "distinction," but here we are nonetheless. And much like left loves to do, Agrawal specifically singled out "white people."
However, one tweet shouldn’t cancel someone. All the tweets in the world that are relatively harmless shouldn’t get someone banished from online society, even though it happens almost daily.
Agrawal's old tweet got some new responses with the revelation of the old one.
— DDayCobra (@DDay_Cobra) November 29, 2021
Though your views may have changed since 2010, here's the answer to your tweet's question:
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) November 29, 2021
Because it's wrong to make blanket statements about entire groups, even if it's done in retaliation to people doing just that.
You can't fight racism with more racism.
Probably should have deleted this one, Parag... Welcome to Twitter.
— Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) November 29, 2021
But with the transition from an outgoing CEO to a new one, questions have presented themselves concerning whether the “blue bird” social media platform will become even more of an echo chamber or move slightly in reverse to a time when people actually enjoyed that platform.
To be fair to Agrawal, it appears he was quoting someone else, and people will say he's just making a comparison. But, if Agrawal still holds the opinion he stated or quoted years ago, then we might be headed for the former situation.