As Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues negotiations to purchase social media site Twitter for $44 billion, Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey announced his departure from the board of the platform he created last week.
In 2021, Dorsey made his first step towards leaving the platform, stepping down from his position of CEO and handing over the reins to Parag Agrawal, an Indian-American software engineer.
Why Did Dorsey Leave?
While the move was interpreted by some as a statement about the sale of the company, Dorsey’s departure was actually planned.
Twitter first announced the move in November that Dorsey was planning to leave the board when his term next expired at the 2022 company shareholder meeting, which took place on Wednesday. The announcement also took place long before Musk considered purchasing the platform.
Dorsey’s move means that none of the platform’s founders remain on the board of the company, and the future of the board looks uncertain as Elon Musk reportedly considers a clean sweep when he becomes the temporary CEO of the company once the purchase is confirmed.
Do Musk and Agrawal Share the Same Vision?
On April 25, Dorsey claimed on Twitter that Elon Musk and current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal share the same vision of creating a platform that is “maximally trusted and broadly inclusive.”
“Elon’s goal of creating a platform that is “maximally trusted and broadly inclusive” is the right one,” Dorsey said on Twitter.
“This is also @paraga’s goal, and why I chose him. Thank you both for getting the company out of an impossible situation. This is the right path…I believe it with all my heart.”
Dorsey’s faith in Musk has been unwavering since the announcement, with the Twitter founder repeatedly expressing his support and belief in Musk’s plans for the platform. However, the direction of the company at present and the direction that Musk intends to take it are very different.
Despite Musk disagreeing with much of Twitter’s current content moderation policies, and his open criticism of what many see is the platform’s left-wing bias, media outlets repeated Dorsey’s claim that the two men share the same vision.
Musk’s negotiations took an unexpected turn this month when he announced that the purchase was temporarily on hold while Twitter collected and presented additional evidence to support their claim that just 5% of the platform’s userbase was made up of bots.
Musk indicated on Twitter that he believes the company should be sold to him for a lower price if the true number of bots on the site is higher than the originally stated figure. Meanwhile, the Tesla CEO is presently being sued by Twitter investors who claim that he manipulated the company’s stock downward by failing to announce his intention to purchase the company soon enough.
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
