The founder of Twitter, formerly known as X, Jack Dorsey, has resigned from the board of the decentralized social network Bluesky, which he co-founded back in 2019.
On its website, Bluesky disclosed that Dorsey’s exit has spurred the company to initiate the quest for a new board member “who resonates with our dedication to crafting a social network empowering individuals to manage their own experiences.” As of now, neither Dorsey nor Bluesky has publicly expounded on the rationale behind the departure.
In 2019, while serving as CEO of Twitter, Dorsey officially introduced Bluesky, articulating the vision for Twitter to eventually adopt this protocol. Through a Twitter thread, Dorsey elucidated the company’s choice to endorse the decentralized social network as a strategy to tackle challenges like misinformation dissemination and the imposition of recommendation algorithms constraining user autonomy.
In 2021, Bluesky formally established itself as a public benefit LLC distinct from Twitter. Thus far, the social network has garnered over $20 million in funding from Neo, Joe Beda, Bob Young, and numerous other supporters.
The latest infusion of $8 million in funding aligned with Meta’s launch of its own rival to X, called Threads. Bluesky stated that the funds will facilitate team growth and address operational and infrastructure costs. As of May, Bluesky purportedly has around 5.6 million users, whereas Threads touts over 130 million users.
