Jack Dorsey has barely posted on Twitter, the social media platform he helped create, since January. In two of his final tweets, the billionaire entrepreneur promoted an app for Nostr, a brand new social community.
“#nostr is now formally on the Apple App Retailer,” he wrote. “and Google Play Retailer.”
Since then, Mr. Dorsey has posted on Nostr a mean of 59 occasions a day — together with messages that take intention at Twitter and its new proprietor, Elon Musk.
“That is weak,” Mr. Dorsey wrote on Nostr final month of Mr. Musk’s transfer to forestall Twitter’s customers from linking to Substack, a publication platform that began a Twitter competitor.
Mr. Dorsey has additionally began utilizing one other new social community, Bluesky. On Saturday, in response to a Bluesky person’s query about whether or not Mr. Musk was the perfect steward for Twitter, Mr. Dorsey replied bluntly, “No.”
“All of it went south,” he mentioned of what Mr. Musk had executed at Twitter. “But it surely occurred and all we will do now could be construct one thing to keep away from that ever occurring once more.”
Mr. Dorsey, 46, the Bitcoin-loving techie who was for years probably the most distinguished face of Twitter, appeared to fade from public view after Mr. Musk purchased the social media firm final 12 months for $44 billion. However Mr. Dorsey’s latest and ample exercise on Nostr and Bluesky alerts that the nonetheless has so much to say.
A lot of what Mr. Dorsey posts about is aligned along with his pursuits in cryptocurrency and open supply know-how, the place code is made public so folks can tinker and reuse it. However he has additionally overtly criticized Mr. Musk’s possession of Twitter, changing into the newest in an extended line of Silicon Valley founders who specific disappointment in those that take over their corporations.
Mr. Dorsey can be placing his cash the place his posts are by backing Twitter’s new opponents. In 2019, whereas Mr. Dorsey was Twitter’s chief govt, he funded Bluesky as a challenge that will permit all social networks to be decentralized by simply sharing posts and customers. And in December, he donated 14 Bitcoin, price about $250,000 on the time, to the pseudonymous creator of Nostr, who goes by the deal with “fiatjaf.”
“I wouldn’t be stunned if he’s withholding his voice from Twitter out of some precept,” Jason Goldman, a member of Twitter’s founding staff who has additionally served on its board, mentioned of Mr. Dorsey’s latest actions. He added that in his newest feedback, Mr. Dorsey “acknowledges how poorly issues have gone for Twitter underneath Elon Musk.”
Mr. Dorsey and Mr. Musk didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Mr. Dorsey, who helped discovered Twitter in 2006, was the corporate’s chief govt for eight years over two completely different stints. And whereas the social community’s success turned him right into a billionaire, he appeared to develop into disillusioned lately with Twitter’s path.
Amongst different issues, Mr. Dorsey, who helps free speech, lamented that Twitter had develop into too highly effective as an arbiter of what sort of posts ought to keep on-line and what ought to be pulled down. He additionally blamed Wall Avenue for turning Twitter away from its main function as a communications platform, pressuring it to earn money and to ultimately promote itself to the very best bidder.
In November 2021, Mr. Dorsey, who additionally leads the funds start-up Block (previously often known as Sq.), stepped down as Twitter’s chief govt. He left its board final 12 months after Mr. Musk bid for the corporate.
Mr. Dorsey has since mentioned that Twitter ought to have been constructed as a unique form of social community: a decentralized one. In contrast to mainstream social platforms, which run non-public code that they management, decentralized social networks make their methods public so customers can doubtlessly construct their very own apps and communities. That approach, no single entity can impose guidelines on what can or can’t be mentioned in these networks, and customers can customise their experiences.
“The issue at the moment is that we’ve corporations who personal each” the know-how and the algorithms that present posts, which “in the end places one particular person answerable for what’s accessible and seen, or not,” Mr. Dorsey wrote in a December weblog post that he shared on Nostr. “That is by definition a single level of failure, regardless of how nice the particular person, and over time will fracture the general public dialog, and will result in extra management by governments and firms world wide.”
Mike Masnick, the editor of the weblog TechDirt and a tech coverage professional, mentioned decentralized networks “permit for lots extra experimentation and makes an attempt to do issues differently.” However he cautioned that in addition they face challenges in complying with content material moderation legal guidelines, just like the Digital Providers Act in Europe or U.S. copyright legislation.
Mr. Dorsey has been keen on decentralized social platforms since not less than 2019, when he started engaged on Bluesky, and has a longstanding curiosity in Bitcoin, a preferred cryptocurrency. He joined Nostr — the acronym stands for “notes and different stuff transmitted by relays” — in December. Nostr additionally lets customers ship one another small cryptocurrency funds, that are known as “zaps.”
Fiatjaf, Nostr’s creator, mentioned in an e-mail that Mr. Dorsey’s assist “has been a sport changer, however a lot much less by way of funding than within the quantity of consciousness and enthusiasm he has generated about Nostr.” He added, “We’re hoping the funding half will begin enjoying an even bigger function ultimately.”
Bluesky, which declined to remark, mentioned in a blog post that Mr. Dorsey stays on its board. (Twitter severed its relationship with Bluesky after Mr. Musk took over.)
Mr. Dorsey and Mr. Musk have lengthy had an up-and-down relationship. When Mr. Musk bid for Twitter final 12 months, Mr. Dorsey endorsed the trouble.
“In precept, I don’t consider anybody ought to personal or run Twitter,” Mr. Dorsey wrote on Twitter on the time. “Fixing for the issue of it being an organization nonetheless, Elon is the singular answer I belief. I belief his mission to increase the sunshine of consciousness.”
However after Mr. Musk purchased Twitter in October, he instantly fired a lot of Mr. Dorsey’s handpicked executives. Mr. Musk has since laid off about 75 % of Twitter’s work pressure, refused to pay hire for a few of its places of work and made sweeping and generally contradictory adjustments to its content material moderation insurance policies.
As Mr. Dorsey has posted on Nostr after which Bluesky, his critiques about Mr. Musk and Twitter have piled up.
In some posts, Mr. Dorsey has chided Twitter for its repeated service disruptions. Final month, he implied on Nostr that Twitter’s users could leave the platform in the event that they needed. He additionally scoffed at Mr. Musk’s transfer to cost Twitter’s customers $8 a month for a examine mark, an emblem that after denoted a verified identification on the platform.
However Mr. Dorsey’s sharpest appraisal of Mr. Musk’s management came to visit the weekend on Bluesky, the place Mr. Dorsey has greater than 11,000 followers. (He has greater than six million followers on Twitter.)
On Saturday, Mr. Dorsey responded to a number of Bluesky customers who requested him concerning the sale of Twitter and the adjustments the corporate has undergone in latest months. He mentioned decentralized social networks had been the perfect protection in opposition to company raiders and added that Mr. Musk “ought to have walked away” from shopping for Twitter.
Mr. Goldman, who was among the many Bluesky customers who questioned Mr. Dorsey over the weekend, mentioned the feedback don’t keep in mind how Mr. Dorsey led Twitter for years and can be accountable for the place the corporate ended up.
“He blames the inevitability of market forces, regardless of main the corporate as both govt chairman or C.E.O. for over a decade,” Mr. Goldman mentioned of Mr. Dorsey.
On Sunday, Mr. Dorsey returned to posting on Nostr, the place he has 134,000 followers. He mentioned he regretted taking Twitter public and making it an organization within the first place.
He additionally leavened his criticisms of Mr. Musk by praising the Twitter proprietor’s efforts to make the location much less depending on model promoting, which makes up the majority of the corporate’s income. And he inspired Mr. Musk to contemplate making Twitter extra open, utilizing decentralized know-how or “open protocol.”
“I perceive the urgency and hasty strikes,” Mr. Dorsey wrote. “I hope he realizes ultimately that basing it on an open protocol like this solves lots of the issues and allows a reasonably unimaginable enterprise. We will see.”