Musk, screwed your platform up? Really?
In less than 6 months, Mr Wonderful has brought the habitual money-losing company to break even. Yup, he cut staff by about 75%. Good riddance.
For the first time, there's a social media channel that isn't being manipulated by folks with a left-leaning political agenda. BTW, I'd say the same thing about a right-leaning platform. To my mind, when Big Brother gets to decide what you see, hear and eventually think...it's 1984.
For our younger readers, the reference is to George Orwell's iconic read about government-controlled censorship.
Jack Dorsey Criticizes Sale of Twitter to Elon Musk
Twitter co-founder said ‘it all went south’ at company when it was sold
By Ginger Adams Otis and Alexa Corse, WSJ
April 30, 2023 6:44 pm ET
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey had been part of a group of people who were encouraging the Tesla CEO’s takeover of the social-media platform. PHOTO: MARCO BELLO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Elon Musk hasn’t proved himself to be the best leader for Twitter, according to co-founder Jack Dorsey, who said “it all went south” when the company was sold to the billionaire.
Mr. Dorsey shared his opinion Friday in a series of posts on Bluesky, a social-media platform some have touted as a possible alternative to Twitter.
When asked by a user if he thought Mr. Musk has been the best possible leader for Twitter, Mr. Dorsey replied “no.”
“Nor do I think he acted right after realizing his timing was bad. Nor do I think the board should have forced the sale. It all went south,” wrote Mr. Dorsey, who has been a supporter of Bluesky.
Bluesky was first announced in 2019, while Mr. Dorsey was the chief executive of Twitter. That year, Mr. Dorsey said Twitter was funding a “small independent team” for the project aimed at building a decentralized network for social media. Bluesky formed its own company in 2021, with initial funding provided by Twitter and Mr. Dorsey as one of its board members, according to a blog post from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber.
It isn’t the first time Mr. Dorsey has been critical of Twitter since the SpaceX and Tesla Inc. CEO acquired the company last year.
In February, Mr. Dorsey took to Nostr, another decentralized platform and alternative to Twitter which Mr. Dorsey has also promoted, to share his frustration when Twitter had a technical issue.
“Twitter went from real time to 1 minute delay,” Mr. Dorsey posted on his Nostr profile, which is identifiable by the information posted on his Twitter bio. It was an apparent reference to a glitch that briefly prevented users from tweeting normally but allowed scheduled tweets to post later.
The day Mr. Musk’s $44 billion takeover bid was accepted by Twitter, Mr. Dorsey, co-founder and head of the financial-technology company Block Inc., said he was a “singular solution” for the company. Block didn’t respond to a request for comment.
On Friday, some Bluesky users pointed to that remark in response to Mr. Dorsey’s recent criticism of Mr. Musk. Mr. Dorsey said his comment was about how Mr. Musk was the best option to take the company private.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Mr. Dorsey had been part of a group of people who were encouraging Mr. Musk’s takeover of the company behind the scenes. Mr. Dorsey rolled over his shares in Twitter when Mr. Musk took it private, according to a regulatory filing from last year.
Mr. Dorsey tried to facilitate Mr. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, according to court documents disclosed as part of a lawsuit over the billionaire’s planned takeover. Mr. Dorsey traded text messages with Mr. Musk and helped arrange a phone call between Mr. Musk and Parag Agrawal, who was then Twitter’s chief executive, the documents showed.
Since taking the helm at Twitter, Mr. Musk has moved quickly to make changes at the company, including laying off staff, slashing costs, tweaking features and changing content-moderation policies.
This April, the company began removing legacy blue check marks for verified users in favor of paid subscriptions. Before Mr. Musk’s takeover, Twitter had awarded free blue check marks to accounts the company deemed authentic, notable and active as a way to prevent impersonation of high-profile users.
Twitter didn’t respond to a comment request from the Journal beyond an auto-reply of an emoji.
On Saturday, Mr. Musk said the social-media platform would soon allow publishers to charge users for articles.
“Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click,” he wrote on Twitter. “Should be a major win-win for both media orgs & the public.”
Meghan Bobrowsky contributed to this article.
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