Jack Dorsey took on Twitter’s greatest issues, however leaves loads of challenges for his successor | Engadget

After a six-year stint as CEO (once more), Jack Dorsey is leaving Twitter in a really completely different place than when he took it over in 2015. Back then, not everybody was excited in regards to the return of the corporate’s cofounder. Even although he initially got here again quickly, staff and traders have been involved that twin CEO roles — he was, and nonetheless is, the CEO of Square — would hold him from having the ability to deal with the corporate’s many issues.

“The general feeling among Twitter employees now is trepidation,” The New York Times wrote in 2015 of Dorsey’s shock return. “Many are concerned at the prospect of Mr. Dorsey’s interim title becoming permanent, given his divisive and sometimes erratic management style and the fact that he had been dismissed and returned to the company before.”

At the time, the corporate was typically described as being “in turmoil.” Twitter was churning by way of executives, and traders have been involved about lackluster consumer progress. Journalists and different pundits typically famous that Twitter by no means knew how to explain what it was or why it mattered. The precise service had barely modified in years. Harassment was rampant, and comparatively unchecked.

Much has modified since then. Hand-wringing over Dorsey’s two jobs by no means actually abated, however turnover on the high of the corporate ultimately slowed, and Twitter began rising once more. The platform nonetheless struggles with harassment, however has made a concerted effort at encouraging “healthy conversations” and has considerably ramped up its insurance policies in opposition to hate speech and harassment.

More just lately, the corporate has undertaken a variety of bold initiatives to vary its core options and create new sources of income. In the final 12 months alone, Twitter has launched new options for dwell audio, teams, and funds. It rolled out creator-focused options like Super Follows, and purchased a publication platform for longform content material. Last month, it launched Twitter Blue, a subscription service geared toward energy customers. The firm can also be within the early phases of BlueSky, a plan to create a decentralized normal for social media platforms.

But incoming CEO Parag Agrawal will nonetheless be inheriting important challenges alongside all of the shiny new tasks. Though the corporate has made strides in growing conversational “health,” it’s additionally grappled with the place to attract the road between free speech and toxicity, notably when political figures are concerned. And, like different platforms, the corporate struggled to rein in misinformation through the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 presidential election.

“Dorsey leaves behind a mixed legacy: a platform that’s useful and potent for quick communication but one that’s been exploited by a range of bad actors, including former President Donald Trump, who did his best on Twitter to undermine democracy—until Dorsey’s people finally had enough and shut him down,” says Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, who has researched social media polarization.

That Twitter beneath Dorsey did ultimately completely ban Trump has solely made the corporate extra of a goal for politicians. And that’s unlikely to vary simply because Twitter’s new CEO has been one of many firm’s lowest profile executives.

Agrawal is taking on as social media platforms face an even bigger reckoning about their function in society. As lawmakers eye regulating algorithms and different reforms, Twitter has began to analysis algorithmic amplification and potential “unintentional harms” brought on by its rating programs. It will now be as much as the corporate’s former CTO to steer that work whereas navigating scrutiny from lawmakers.

Agrawal can even inherit ambitious goals Twitter set earlier this 12 months: To double its income and develop its consumer base to 315 million monetizable every day energetic customers (mDAU) by the top of 2023 (the corporate reported 211 million mDAU in its most up-to-date earnings report). And there are some indicators he could also be nicely positioned to make that occur. While Twitter beneath Dorsey has been gradual to make selections and launch updates, Agrawal has been a proponent of recent options like Bitcoin tipping. He additionally over noticed Bluesky, the decentralization challenge.

The firm has been betting that transferring away from promoting and leaning into subscription companies and different new options will assist it get there. But Twitter is hardly alone in pursuing creators and subscriptions, and it’s not clear the corporate will be capable to simply persuade giant swaths of customers to start out paying for further content material or premium options.

Twitter’s new CEO appears to be nicely conscious of the challenges forward. “We recently updated our strategy to hit ambitious goals, and I believe that strategy to be bold and right,” Agrawal wrote in an email to staff he shared on Twitter. “But our critical challenge is how we work to execute against it and deliver results.”