Difference between revisions of "Jack Dorsey"
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| − | {{initial|J}}<b>ack Dorsey</b> | + | {{initial|J}}<b>ack Dorsey</b> (born November 19, 1976) is a co-founder and CEO of [[Twitter]] (known on the platform as @jack), a social networking platform, and founder and CEO of Square, a mobile payments platform. Dorsey has faced a lot of attention in recent years as a spokesperson for Twitter as social media sites become some of the most widely used platforms for communication and tech companies are forced to face the responsibility of maintaining an ethical platform. His most prominent moments include his White House meeting with Donald Trump and his testimony to the US Congress on online election meddling and conservative censorship on social media. |
{{Person-Infobox | {{Person-Infobox | ||
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== Career == | == Career == | ||
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| + | Jack Dorsey began his career working on software that managed dispatch centers for couriers at Dispatch Management Services Corporation (DMSC) while he attended NYU. <ref> Bussgang, Jeffrey. [https://techcrunch.com/2010/04/27/jack-dorsey-fred-wilson-twitter-book-excerpt/ "When Jack Dorsey Met Fred Wilson, And Other Twitter Tales (Book Excerpt)"] ''Tech Crunch'', 28 April 2010. </ref> Dorsey later dropped out of NYU to work at a podcasting startup called Odeo. At Odeo, Dorsey came up with the idea for Twitter and developed the concept with entrepreneur Noah Glass. <ref> Arrington, Michael. [https://techcrunch.com/2006/07/15/is-twttr-interesting/ "Odeo Releases Twttr"], ''Tech Crunch'', 15 July 2006.</ref> <ref> Wolan, Christian. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/christianwolan/2011/04/14/the-real-story-of-twitter/#38ded31566af "The Real Story of Twitter"] ''Forbes'', 14 April 2011.</ref> In 2006, Dorsey and some of his Odeo coworkers formed Obvious Corporation, acquiring Twitter from Odeo. <ref> Malik, Om. [https://gigaom.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/ Odeo RIP, "Hello Obvious Corp"] ''Gigaom'' 25 October 2006.</ref> From Obvious Corporation came Twitter Inc., with Dorsey as its founding CEO. <ref> Bussgang, Jeffrey. [https://techcrunch.com/2010/04/27/jack-dorsey-fred-wilson-twitter-book-excerpt/ "When Jack Dorsey Met Fred Wilson, And Other Twitter Tales (Book Excerpt)"] ''Tech Crunch'', 28 April 2010. </ref> In 2008, Dorsey stepped down as CEO, becoming chairman of the board.<ref> McCarthy, Caroline. [https://www.cnet.com/news/twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-steps-down/ "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey steps down"] ''c|net'', 17 October 2008.</ref> This gave him time to work on his next pursuit: Square, a platform for credit card payments via mobile device. Square launched in 2010, and by 2011, Dorsey was back to Twitter as executive chairman, while continuing to be CEO of Square.<ref> Indvik, Lauren. [https://mashable.com/2011/03/28/jack-dorsey-returns-to-twitter/ "Jack Dorsey Officially Returns to Twitter"], ''Mashable'', 28 March 2011.</ref> Since 2015, Dorsey has been CEO of both Twitter and Square.<ref> Koh, Yoree. [https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-names-jack-dorsey-ceo-1444046580 "Twitter Names Co-Founder Jack Dorsey CEO"], ''Wall Street Journal'', 5 October 2015.</ref> | ||
=== Testimony to Congress === | === Testimony to Congress === | ||
Revision as of 15:32, 26 March 2020
Contents
Career
Jack Dorsey began his career working on software that managed dispatch centers for couriers at Dispatch Management Services Corporation (DMSC) while he attended NYU. [4] Dorsey later dropped out of NYU to work at a podcasting startup called Odeo. At Odeo, Dorsey came up with the idea for Twitter and developed the concept with entrepreneur Noah Glass. [5] [6] In 2006, Dorsey and some of his Odeo coworkers formed Obvious Corporation, acquiring Twitter from Odeo. [7] From Obvious Corporation came Twitter Inc., with Dorsey as its founding CEO. [8] In 2008, Dorsey stepped down as CEO, becoming chairman of the board.[9] This gave him time to work on his next pursuit: Square, a platform for credit card payments via mobile device. Square launched in 2010, and by 2011, Dorsey was back to Twitter as executive chairman, while continuing to be CEO of Square.[10] Since 2015, Dorsey has been CEO of both Twitter and Square.[11]
Testimony to Congress
In 2018, Jack Dorsey testified before the US congress, alongside Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg. During the testimony, Dorsey responded to accusations by Republicans that conservative accounts were being shadow banned (de-emphasized in search results by the platform). He denied these accusations, explaining that “from a simple business perspective and to serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivized to keep all voices on the platform.” [12]
Dorsey also admitted problems with Twitter’s verification system. The “blue check mark” system that was originally intended to simply confirm identity has become a status symbol on the site that is seen as an endorsement of a verified account’s views even if that is not what Twitter intended it to be. [13]
Meeting with Donald Trump
In April 2019, Jack Dorsey met with Donald Trump in the White House after Trump’s complaints that Twitter was being discriminatory against him as a Republican for removing many of his followers during a purge of fake profiles. In the same purge, Dorsey himself lost around 200,000 followers. While the contents of the meeting are not available to the public, Trump shared in a tweet that they discussed “lots of subjects...regarding their platform, and the world of social media in general." [14]
Dorsey’s Future Plans
Earlier this year, Dorsey announced plans to move to Africa. “Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!). Not sure where yet, but I’ll be living here for 3-6 months mid 2020,” he tweeted. “I think he is definitely looking at the opportunity to get more people to adopt payments on Bitcoin, buying Bitcoin with Square here” thinks Adeoye Ojo, CEO of SureRemit, an African crypto-currency startup. [15] As of the COVID-19 outbreak, Dorsey has been forced to reevaluate these plans. Recently, hedge fund Elliot Management bought a large stake in Twitter and it was rumored that they planned to oust Dorsey as CEO. They were concerned about how well he was leading Twitter while simultaneously leading Square and pursuing other projects like his move to Africa. As of early March 2020, Elliot Management and Twitter have come to an agreement that leaves Dorsey as CEO while appointing 2 new board members. [16]
Ethical Implications
Twitter's Abuse and Harassment Problem
When Jack Dorsey came up with the idea of "Twttr." in 2006, his focus was on the ability for people to share their “status” with others. Many basic decisions that Dorsey and other engineers made with the site in its creation are ones that he regrets today due to their impact now that the site is at such a large scale. [17] “If I had to start the service again, I would not emphasize the follower count as much,” he said. “I don’t think I would even create ‘like’ in the first place, because it doesn’t actually push what we believe now to be the most important thing, which is healthy contribution back to the network and conversation to the network, participation within conversation, learning something from the conversation.” [18]
To eliminate these aspects of followers and likes would be to eliminate some of Twitter’s main engagement metrics that have become very important to the platform. The emphasis on these metrics fosters an environment that rewards scenarios of accounts being followed by large numbers of bots, or high levels of replies to a tweet, even if the replies are harassment rather than “healthy conversation”. "We have seen abuse, we have seen harassment, we have seen manipulation, automation, human coordination, misinformation," Dorsey said. "These are dynamics that we were not expecting 13 years ago." [19] Dorsey admits that the scale of the problem is large, and that fixing it will involve systemic change, but to make these changes is a risky move for the success of the company.
Jack Dorsey has also said that Twitter’s system for reporting harassment asks too much of victims, and he hopes it will be able to more heavily rely on machine learning to identify abusive tweets so the people being harassed don’t have to. [20]
Ban on Political Ads
In October 2019, Dorsey announced Twitter’s decision to ban political ads from the platform. "A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money," he said.
This announcement followed criticism of Facebook for not taking down political ads with lies in them. To Zuckerberg, Dorsey commented “This isn't about free expression. This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today's democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle." [21]
References
- ↑ Hayes, David C. "Jack Dorsey", Encyclopedia Brittanica, 15 November 2019.
- ↑ Hayes, David C. "Jack Dorsey", Encyclopedia Brittanica, 15 November 2019.
- ↑ Hayes, David C. "Jack Dorsey", Encyclopedia Brittanica, 15 November 2019.
- ↑ Bussgang, Jeffrey. "When Jack Dorsey Met Fred Wilson, And Other Twitter Tales (Book Excerpt)" Tech Crunch, 28 April 2010.
- ↑ Arrington, Michael. "Odeo Releases Twttr", Tech Crunch, 15 July 2006.
- ↑ Wolan, Christian. "The Real Story of Twitter" Forbes, 14 April 2011.
- ↑ Malik, Om. Odeo RIP, "Hello Obvious Corp" Gigaom 25 October 2006.
- ↑ Bussgang, Jeffrey. "When Jack Dorsey Met Fred Wilson, And Other Twitter Tales (Book Excerpt)" Tech Crunch, 28 April 2010.
- ↑ McCarthy, Caroline. "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey steps down" c|net, 17 October 2008.
- ↑ Indvik, Lauren. "Jack Dorsey Officially Returns to Twitter", Mashable, 28 March 2011.
- ↑ Koh, Yoree. "Twitter Names Co-Founder Jack Dorsey CEO", Wall Street Journal, 5 October 2015.
- ↑ Lucas, Amelia. "Twitter shares fall 6% as CEO Jack Dorsey testifies before Senate", CNBC, 5 September 2018.
- ↑ Farhad, Manjoo. "What Jack Dorsey and Sheryl Sandberg Taught Congress and Vice Versa", The New York Times, 6 September 2018.
- ↑ Sink, Justin. "President Trump Met With Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey After Criticizing the Social Media Platform", Time, 23 April 2019.
- ↑ Bright, Jake, and Lunden, Ingrid. "Into Africa: tech leaders weigh in on Jack Dorsey’s planned move to the continent", Tech Crunch, 6 January 2020.
- ↑ Rushe, Dominic. "Twitter and activist investor agree on truce to keep Jack Dorsey as chief", The Guardian, 9 March 2020.
- ↑ Carlson, Nicholas. "The Real History of Twitter", Business Insider, 13 April 2011.
- ↑ Wiener, Anna. "Jack Dorsey's TED Interview and the End of an Era", The New Yorker, 27 April 2019.
- ↑ Bendix, Aria. "Jack Dorsey says Twitter makes it 'super easy' to harass and abuse others, and addressing the problem is his biggest worry", Business Insider, 17 April 2019.
- ↑ Farhad, Manjoo. "What Jack Dorsey and Sheryl Sandberg Taught Congress and Vice Versa", The New York Times, 6 September 2018.
- ↑ Ivanova, Irina. "Twitter announces ban on all political ads", CBS News, 31 October 2019.
