Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is leaving after 16 years

Jack Dorsey Twitter
(Image credit: Frederic Legrand - COMEO / Shutterstock.com)

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is leaving the social media platform he co-founded 16 years ago. 

Dorsey announced the news on Twitter (via a tweeted screenshot of an email, naturally) early on Cyber Monday. He named the company’s chief technology officer Parag Agrawal to succeed him as CEO, and it seems like he won’t accept another role at Twitter.

In the statement, Dorsey explained that while he would stay on the company’s board until ‘May-ish’ to help Agrawal through the transition to CEO, he would leave thereafter to make sure the company “can stand on its own, free of its founder’s influence or direction.”

Dorsey leaves behind a social media platform that has become one of the most influential discussion spaces on the internet, for better and worse. Agrawal inherits a Twitter that continues to struggle with what it will and will not permit on the platform; famously, former US President Trump used the platform as a pulpit to announce policy before (or in place of) official statements, elevating Twitter to international diplomatic mouthpiece. 

In his own tweeted statement, now-CEO Agrawal expressed gratitude, cited his ten years of work as an engineer at Twitter in its earlier days, and stressed collaboration on the company’s next steps.

David Lumb

David is now a mobile reporter at Cnet. Formerly Mobile Editor, US for TechRadar, he covered phones, tablets, and wearables. He still thinks the iPhone 4 is the best-looking smartphone ever made. He's most interested in technology, gaming and culture – and where they overlap and change our lives. His current beat explores how our on-the-go existence is affected by new gadgets, carrier coverage expansions, and corporate strategy shifts.