Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has stepped down as CEO of the social media platform. He has been succeeded by Twitter’s present chief expertise officer, Parag Agrawal.
Dorsey will stay on the board till his time period expires in 2022. Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 and has been CTO since 2017.
In a letter posted on his Twitter account, Dorsey mentioned he was “actually unhappy … but actually pleased” about leaving the corporate and that it was his resolution. On Sunday, Dorsey had despatched a cryptic tweet studying solely “I really like Twitter.”
By early afternoon, Twitter shares have been largely unchanged, down lower than 1 % at $46.65.
Twitter was caught up within the heated political ambiance main as much as the 2020 election, notably when it banned former President Donald Trump following his incitement of the Jan. 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol. Dorsey defended the transfer, saying Trump’s tweets after the occasion resulted in a danger to public security and created an “extraordinary and untenable circumstance” for the corporate. Trump sued the corporate, together with Fb and YouTube, in July for alleged censorship.
Critics argued that Twitter took too lengthy to handle hate speech, harassment and different dangerous exercise on its platform, notably through the 2020 marketing campaign.
“If he’s really stepping away from Twitter this time, Dorsey leaves behind a combined legacy,” mentioned Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Heart for Enterprise and Human Rights. “A platform that’s helpful and potent for fast communication however one which’s been exploited by a spread of dangerous actors, together with former President Donald Trump, who did his finest on Twitter to undermine democracy — till Dorsey’s individuals lastly had sufficient and shut him down.”
Dorsey has confronted a number of distractions as CEO, beginning with the truth that he’s additionally founder and CEO of the funds firm Sq.. Some massive buyers have brazenly questioned whether or not he might successfully lead each corporations.
READ: CEO Jack Dorsey’s full testimony on Twitter and political bias
Final 12 months, Twitter got here to an settlement with two of these activist buyers that saved Dorsey within the prime job and gave a seat on the corporate board to Elliott Administration Corp., which owned about 4 % of Twitter’s inventory, and one other to Silver Lake.
Dorsey provided no particular causes for his resignation past an summary argument that Twitter, the place he’s spent 16 years in numerous roles, ought to “break free from its founding and founders.” Dependence on firm founders, he wrote, is “severely limiting.”
He expressed his confidence in Agrawal and new board chairman Bret Taylor, who’s president and COO of the enterprise software program firm Salesforce.
Agrawal is a “‘secure’ choose who ought to be regarded upon as favorably by buyers,” wrote CFRA Analysis analyst Angelo Zino, who famous that Elliott had pressured Dorsey to step down. Elliott launched a press release Monday saying Agrawal and Taylor have been the “proper leaders for Twitter at this pivotal second for the corporate.”
Whereas Twitter has high-profile customers like politicians and celebrities and is a favourite of journalists, its person base lags far behind previous rivals like Fb and YouTube and newer ones like TikTok. It has simply over 200 million day by day lively customers, a standard trade metric.
Agrawal, in the meantime, is much much less well-known than Dorsey. He beforehand labored at Microsoft, Yahoo and AT&T in analysis roles. At Twitter, he’s labored on machine studying, income and client engineering and serving to with viewers progress. An immigrant from India, he studied at Stanford and the Indian Institute of Know-how, Bombay.
As CEO, he’ll must step out from his largely technical background and cope with the social and political points Twitter and social media are fighting, together with misinformation, abuse and results on psychological well being.
The early days of Twitter started with a tweet despatched by Dorsey on March 21, 2006, that learn “simply organising my twttr.” Twitter went via a interval of strong progress throughout its early years, however as its growth slowed the San Francisco firm started tweaking its format in a bid to make it simpler and extra participating to make use of.
