Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, is criticizing Elon Musk, the current CEO of Twitter—turning away from previous statements supporting the buyout.
Key Details
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk purchased Twitter in October 2022 and has facilitated mass firings, dropped advertising revenue, and turned verification into a subscription service.
- Bluesky is an invite-only, decentralized social-media platform designed as an alternative to Twitter and promoted by prominent figures like Jack Dorsey, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Chrissy Teigen.
- Speaking via Bluesky on Friday, Dorsey shared harsh thoughts about the leadership of the social-media network he founded and formally served as the CEO of from 2015 to 2021.
- Dorsey says “it all went south” and that Musk “should have walked away” from the $44-billion purchase, saying he is not the right leader to run the social-media network.
Why It’s News
Dorsey’s statements mark a notable shift in tone from last year when he was calling Musk “the singular solution I trust [to save Twitter]. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.” As we previously reported, Dorsey tried to connect Musk with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal a day after the social-media platform accepted Musk’s $44-billion takeover bid in an effort to smooth over the process.
Dorsey’s tune appears to have changed in the seven months since. He has been working with Bluesky since 2019, so his change does not appear to be motivated by a desire to push his own new social-media network. “I [do not] think he acted right after realizing his timing was bad. Nor do I think the board should have forced the sale,” he says.
The Problem
He noted that Musk’s recently launched verification subscription on April 20 is a poor revenue source. “Payment as proof of human is a trap, and I’m not aligned with that at all. The payment systems being used for that proof exclude millions if not billions of people.”
Dorsey did note that he does think that Twitter “would have never survived as a public company,” suggesting that the social media network was never going to be sustainable in its pre-buyout model without being taken over by Wall Street hedge funds.
Backing Up A Bit
Musk has sizable ambitions to transform Twitter into a new monetary platform. He was able to restructure and rebuild the company enough in its first three months to break even. However, it remains unwieldy and chaotic as his leadership strategy has drawn heavy criticism from the media, investors, and regular collaborators. Twitter’s valuation has dropped to half what it was in October.
As of April 4, Twitter has begun a slow transition into Musk’s plan to transform the network into X.com, a revolutionary financial service that he laid out the groundwork for 20 years ago while helping to found PayPal. Musk believes that he can transform the dying social-media network into a $250-billion giant under his leadership, mimicking his transformation of Tesla into a $700-billion company.
