Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has a high opinion of Elon Musk, who has just proposed a plan to buy this social network and use it privately
On Thursday, the board of Twitter Inc. convened an emergency meeting to consider Elon Musk’s $43 billion proposal to take the social media company private. The board has yet to say publicly what it will do with the offer.
But at least one member, Jack Dorsey, has warmly accepted Musk’s proposals in the past.
Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, praised Musk and described him as a favorite “influential” tweeter. He also invited Musk to Twitter to discuss product ideas. The two share a common interest in cryptocurrencies and make Twitter’s software and content moderation decisions more transparent.
“One of the things I think Twitter should do is use an open source algorithm,” Musk said Thursday afternoon at the TED conference in Vancouver after announcing his bid. CEO of Tesla Inc. says that Twitter’s system of censorship and media promotion acts like a “black box”. He added, “That can be quite dangerous.”
As Twitter CEO, Dorsey has started a project to make the company’s technology open to public testing, though that effort has so far yielded few results. Since leaving this role, he has frequently tweeted last year about the damage the company’s centralized, control over web services is doing. “I realize I was partly at fault and I regret it,” he wrote April 2, weeks after Musk began quietly buying shares of the company.
Dorsey, whose leadership came under scrutiny in a campaign from Elliot Management Corp., stepped down as CEO late last year and will leave the Twitter board this year. (He still runs Block Inc.) After Twitter invited Musk to join the board — but before Musk and Twitter reversed that plan — Dorsey said he’d wanted the fellow billionaire as director “since long”.
Other members of Twitter’s board of directors, including three former Google executives and Salesforce.com Inc. co-CEO Bret Taylor, shared greetings to Musk as he greeted him. prepared to participate, followed by a note that he would not participate.
It’s unclear if Dorsey and Musk are eyeing each other over content moderation. Under Dorsey’s leadership, Twitter permanently banned former President Donald Trump after the Capitol riots, though Dorsey delegated most of the moderation decisions to his deputy, Vijaya Gadde.
At the TED conference, Musk said that Twitter should comply with the laws of the countries where it operates and noted that he opposes a “permanent ban.” But he failed to articulate a strong content policy philosophy. “If it’s a gray area, let the Tweet live,” Musk said, before adding. “I’m not saying I have all the answers here.”
Dorsey, like Musk, is an excellent tweeter. He hasn’t posted anything since Musk announced his takeover bid.
