According to reports on Wednesday, Jack Dorsey, the former CEO and Co-Founder of Twitter, is stepping down from the social media giant’s Board effective immediately.
The move by Dorsey was shared last fall when he stepped down as the company’s CEO. But, amid pressure recently, by supporting Elon Musk in his bid to buy the company and his call for free speech, Dorsey is stepping aside immediately.
Dorsey came under fire earlier this month for agreeing with Musk’s opinion that banning former President Donald Trump from the social media platform was a poor decision.
Banning Trump from Twitter “was a morally bad decision, to be clear, and foolish in the extreme,” Musk said at a Financial Times conference on Tuesday. Musk was quick to state that former CEO and founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey agreed.
“I do agree,” Dorsey wrote. “There are exceptions (CSE, illegal behavior, spam or network manipulation, etc), but generally permanent bans are a failure of ours and don’t work.”
I do agree. There are exceptions (CSE, illegal behaviour, spam or network manipulation, etc), but generally permanent bans are a failure of ours and don't work, which I wrote about here after the event (and called for a resilient social media protocol): https://t.co/fQ9KnrCQGX
— jack (@jack) May 10, 2022
Dorsey then pointed back to a statement from January 13, 2021, shortly after the platform banned President Trump. In the statement, he expressed regret for the “business decision.”
Musk has repeatedly acknowledged that he does not yet own Twitter. He has been sure to point out that any plans to reinstate Trump’s account are still theoretical.
“This is not like a thing that will definitely happen,” he said during the live event.
The commentary of Musk and Dorsey both answer questions that have been lingering since Musk made his offer to purchase the platform in April. Many have wondered if he would reinstate users such as Trump. Musk has repeatedly stated that he intends to “unlock” the platform’s potential by easing what he sees as unfair restrictions on free speech.
