Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey released a statement Friday about his time at the company, including what he deemed to be his “biggest failing” while in charge.
The tweets from Dorsey come after Twitter’s board of directors unanimously approved to be acquired by Elon Musk earlier this week in a $44 billion sale valued at $54.20 per share.
“I have tried taking a break from Twitter recently, but I must say: the company has always tried to do its best given the information it had. Every decision we made was ultimately my responsibility*. In the cases we were wrong or went too far, we admitted it and worked to correct,” Dorsey wrote on Twitter. “Some things can be fixed immediately, and others require rethinking and reimplementing the entire system. It is important to me that we get critical feedback in all of its forms, but also important that we get the space and time to address it. All of that should be done publicly.”
“A transparent system, both in policy and operations, is the right way to earn trust. Whether it’s owned by a company or an open protocol doesn’t matter _as much as_ deliberately deciding to be open about every decision and why it was made. It’s not easy to do, but it must happen,” Dorsey continued. “Doing this work means you’re in the arena. Nothing that is said now matters. What matters is how the service works and acts, and how quickly it learns and improves. My biggest failing was that quickness part. I’m confident that part at least is being addressed, and will be fixed.”
At the end of his Twitter thread, Dorsey appeared to denote the meaning behind the asterisk that he used in his prior tweet, writing: “*it’s also crazy and wrong that individuals or companies bear this responsibility. As I’ve said before, I don’t believe any permanent ban (with the exception of illegal activity) is right, or should be possible. This is why we need a protocol that’s resilient to the layers above.”