Jack Dorsey, co-founder of social media platform Twitter, has stepped down as CEO of the company as of Nov. 29.
Dorsey is one of the minds behind the company and even published the first-ever tweet on the site in Mar. 21st, 2006. As the CEO from the beginning, Dorsey stepped down in 2008 to become chairman. But, he ultimately took the mantle up again in 2015 and, as a result of all of his contributions, became one of the faces of Twitter.
It seems unlikely that Dorsey will be returning to the spot, as he was still active in the company from 2008-2015, and was only called up in 2015 due to the CEO at the time stepping down, whereas now, he will be stepping down from the company altogether once his term is finished.
From 2015 onward, Dorsey added many positive changes to the site, such as increasing character count, changing the verification system to be more available to public figures and banning any political advertisements on the site following the controversy of the 2016 presidential election.
Dorsey was also in support of banning Donald Trump from the platform at the start of 2021, after Trump supporters invaded the capitol to protest the voting in the presidential election, but also stated that it could set a bad precedent for future suspensions of accounts.
However, in a move that seemed to come from out of nowhere, Dorsey announced that he would resign from the position effective immediately in an email to Twitter, then posted a screenshot of the full email on his Twitter account. He appointed Parag Agrawal, the chief technical officer of the site, as the new CEO. Dorsey said “I’m going to serve on the board through my term to help Parag with the transition. And after that…I’ll leave the board.” He also reassured people that this was not a decision he was influenced to make; rather, a choice he made for the company because “it’s critical a company can stand on its own, free of its founder’s influence or direction”.
Many users are wary of the direction Twitter may go once Dorsey is gone. Agrawal’s first order as the CEO was to prohibit imagery or video that were recorded without a person’s consent, a move that has already received backlash. The trust he has in Agrawal displays that the site will be just fine.
Dorsey’s last words in the final email he sent as CEO were “thank you all for the trust you’ve placed in me, and for the openness to build that trust in Parag and yourselves. I love you all.”
