7 Things to Know About Twitter’s New CEO

Twitter co-founder and outgoing CEO Jack Dorsey threw within the towel earlier this week, asserting he’d instantly be succeeded by former Twitter CTO Parag Agrawal. Dorsey was scant on particulars explaining his departure, noting solely that he believed it was time for the corporate to maneuver past its founders. News of Dorsey’s exit was leaked by CNBC earlier than being confirmed by the corporate quickly after.

Despite the high-profile departure, comparatively little is understood concerning the 10-year Twitter veteran taking on the reins. Here are seven issues we do know thus far about Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal.

1. Agrawal Moved From Bombay to Stanford Before Landing at Twitter

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The new CEO acquired an undergraduate diploma in pc science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Agrawal then accomplished a PhD in philosophy and pc science at Stanford University between 2005-2012, based on his LinkedIn profile.

2. Agrawal Is No Stranger to Big Tech Companies

In 2006, Agrawal joined Microsoft for a short four-month analysis function earlier than shifting on to analysis positions at Yahoo and AT&T, according to LinkedIn. Agrawal first arrived at Twitter in 2011, simply months after Dorsey returned as CEO following his elimination from the highest place in 2008.

3. Agrawal Rose Through Twitter’s Ranks Over a Decade

When Agrawal began at Twitter, he reportedly labored on a challenge associated to growing the relevance of customers’ tweets on their timelines and viewers development. He then acquired the title “distinguished engineer” for his impression on viewers development, according to Forbes. Agrawal was named CTO in 2018, almost seven years after becoming a member of the corporate.

4. Twitter Accelerated Its Use of AI Under Agrawal

As CTO, Agrawal centered on “scaling a cohesive machine learning and AI approach,” throughout Twitter’s client and infrastructure staff, a spokesperson beforehand told CNBC. Agrawal spoke in some element on Twitter’s efforts to make use of AI to detect bot accounts and label doubtlessly dangerous content material with the Atlantic’s CEO, Nicholas Thompson.

5. Agrawal Is Interested in a Decentralized Approach to Social Media

Since 2019, Argawal has been concerned in Bluesky, a challenge funded by Twitter geared toward making a decentralized social media customary. Though particulars round Bluesky stay scarce, the challenge named its first chief, Jay Graber, earlier this yr. Dorsey has beforehand described Bluesky because the “standard for the public conversation layer of the internet.”

6. Dorsey Said Agrawal has Been Behind “Every Critical Decision” That Helped Turn Twitter Around

In his resignation letter, Dorsey stated Agrawal had been unanimously appointed by Twitter’s board and had been his private choose to steer the place for a while. “My trust in him [Agrawal] as our CEO is bone deep,” Dorsey said.

Former Twitter worker talking with the Wall Street Journal equally described Agrawal as a “close friend” to Dorsey.

7. Agrawal May Face Push Back From the Right

Just hours after being named CEO, some critics pointed to Agrawal’s earlier assertion on Twitter’s response to dealing with misinformation as proof of censorship in opposition to conservatives. Specifically, critics pointed to a 2020 interview Agrawal gave to the MIT Technology Review during which he stated Twitter’s “role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation.”