Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter known for his quirks (like reportedly eating just one meal a day, and sporting an unkempt beard and nose ring while testifying before Congress), resigned from his role as CEO Monday, saying the company is “ready to move on from its founders.”
Under Dorsey, who left the company in 2008 and returned in 2015, Twitter achieved profitability and posted its first billion-dollar quarter.
Dorsey has aggressively rolled out new features — not all of which were hits. “Fleets,” Twitter’s answer to Snapchat and Instagram stories, was a huge flop.
While much smaller than rivals like Facebook, Twitter has been central to the debates over whether and how much social media platforms should be responsible for curbing hate speech, violent rhetoric and misinformation on their sites.
Earlier this year, Twitter took the extraordinary step of permanently banning a sitting US president from the service following the insurrection at the US Capitol. But it hasn’t solved the broader problem of harassment and abuse on its platform.
What’s next?
Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief technology officer, will take over as CEO. Dorsey remains CEO of Square, the $100 billion payments company he also co-founded. This summer, Dorsey suggested he might be willing to leave Twitter and Square to go work on bitcoin-related initiatives.
Twitter’s stock rose 10% early Monday on the news, before giving up those gains and closing the day down nearly 3%. CNN
