As Twitter CEO steps down, company looks forward to the future
Jack Dorsey is out of his post as Twitter鈥檚 chief executive for the second time in his career 鈥� this time, he says, by choice.
Mr. Dorsey, who co-founded the company, offered no specific reasons for his resignation Monday beyond an abstract argument that Twitter, where he鈥檚 spent 16 years in various roles, should 鈥渂reak away from its founding and founders.鈥� Dependence on company founders, he wrote, is 鈥渟everely limiting.鈥�
He will be succeeded by Twitter鈥檚 current chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal, a choice Wall Street analysts seemed to welcome, seeing him as a safe choice who will usher the company into what鈥檚 widely seen as the internet鈥檚 next era 鈥撀爐he metaverse. Investors were less sure, sending Twitter鈥檚 stock 3% lower.
Mr. Dorsey was the social platform鈥檚 first CEO in 2007 until he was forced out the following year, then returned to the role in 2015. He is known for his relaxed demeanor, for his sometimes massive beard that鈥檚 the subject of several parody Twitter accounts, and for Silicon Valley eccentricities that include dabbling in silent retreats, intermittent fasting, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain.
He leaves Twitter at a crossroads. The service changed American politics, journalism, and culture.
鈥淏ut [Twitter] also, it turns out, had a darker side and has been exploited for years by people who want to harass other people and spread falsehoods about other individuals, about groups of individuals, about the state of democracy,鈥� said Paul Barrett, deputy director at the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
In a letter posted on his Twitter account, Mr. Dorsey said he was 鈥渞eally sad...yet really happy鈥� about leaving the company and that it was his decision.
Mr. Dorsey sent the first tweet on March 21, 2006, that read 鈥渏ust setting up my twttr.鈥� Twitter went through a period of robust growth during its early years, but as its expansion slowed, the San Francisco company began tweaking its format in a bid to make it easier and more engaging to use. While it never rivaled Facebook in size, Twitter became a primary conduit for political discourse and journalism, for better and for worse.
He will remain on the board until his term expires in 2022. Mr. Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 and has been CTO since 2017. Mr. Dorsey expressed confidence in Mr. Agrawal and new board Chairman Bret Taylor, who is president and chief operating officer of the business software company Salesforce.
Twitter was caught up in the heated political atmosphere leading up to the 2020 election, particularly when it banned former President Donald Trump following his incitement of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Dorsey defended the move, saying Mr. Trump鈥檚 tweets after the event resulted in a risk to public safety and created an 鈥渆xtraordinary and untenable circumstance鈥� for the company.
Mr. Trump sued the company, along with Facebook and YouTube, in July, alleging censorship.
Critics argued that Twitter took too long to address hate speech, harassment, and other harmful activity on its platform, particularly during the presidential campaign.
Publicly, Mr. Dorsey has signaled that he understood Twitter鈥檚 need to change. In a series of tweets in 2018, he said the company was committed to 鈥渃ollective health, openness, and civility of public conversation, and to hold ourselves publicly accountable towards progress.鈥�
鈥淲e have witnessed abuse, harassment, troll armies, manipulation through bots and human-coordination, misinformation campaigns, and increasingly divisive echo chambers. We aren鈥檛 proud of how people have taken advantage of our service, or our inability to address it fast enough,鈥� he wrote.
The company adopted more stringent content-moderation standards and other changes, Mr. Barrett said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 all to the good, but it鈥檚 not perfect, and it鈥檚 nowhere close to perfect.鈥�
Mr. Dorsey has faced several distractions as CEO, starting with the fact that he鈥檚 also founder and CEO of the payments company Square. Some big investors have questioned whether he could effectively lead both companies.
Since Twitter went public in 2013, its stock has been sluggish. It closed at $41 on its first day of trading eight years ago. On Monday, it ended the day at $45.78. Square has enjoyed far greater financial success with Mr. Dorsey at the helm. Its stock, which began trading in 2015 around $13, closed Monday above $212.
Last year, Twitter came to an agreement with two of those activist investors that kept Mr. Dorsey in the top job and gave a seat on the company board to Elliott Management Corp., which owned about 4% of Twitter鈥檚 stock, and another to the Silver Lake private equity firm.
Mr. Agrawal is a 鈥溾�榮afe鈥� pick who should be looked upon as favorably by investors,鈥� wrote CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino, who noted that Elliott had pressured Mr. Dorsey to step down. Elliott released a statement Monday saying Mr. Agrawal and Mr. Taylor were the 鈥渞ight leaders for Twitter at this pivotal moment for the company.鈥�
While Twitter has high-profile users like politicians and celebrities and is a favorite of journalists, its user base lags far behind old rivals Facebook and YouTube and newer ones such as TikTok. It has just over 200 million daily active users, a common industry metric.
Mr. Agrawal is far less known than Mr. Dorsey. He previously worked at Microsoft, Yahoo, and AT&T in research roles. At Twitter, he鈥檚 worked on machine learning, revenue and consumer engineering, and audience growth. An immigrant from India, he studied at Stanford University and the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay.
As CEO, he will have to step out from his largely technical background and confront social and political issues, including misinformation, abuse, and effects on mental health.
Mr. Agrawal got a fast introduction to life as CEO of a company that鈥檚 one of the central platforms for political speech. Conservatives quickly unearthed a tweet he sent in 2010 that read 鈥淚f they are not gonna make a distinction between muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists.鈥�
As some Twitter users pointed out, the 11-year-old tweet quoted a segment on 鈥淭he Daily Show,鈥� which was referencing the firing of journalist Juan Williams, who made a comment about being nervous about Muslims on an airplane. Twitter did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the tweet.
Mr. Barrett said Mr. Dorsey鈥檚 founder-CEO peers 鈥� notably Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg 鈥� should take heed.
鈥淚t would be wise for the founding generation to actually give up control on a day-to-day basis of these entities sooner than they tend to do. I think there鈥檚 a natural tendency to want to hold on to your baby and guide and shape it,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 a very different role coming up with the idea in the first place and refining it in its very earliest years and then running it when it becomes something that has hundreds of millions of users.鈥�
This story was reported by The Associated Press.
