Bluesky’s most distinguished backer has left its board.
On Saturday, Jack Dorsey posted on X about grants for open protocols from his philanthropic Begin Small initiative. This prompted somebody to ask Dorsey if he was nonetheless on the Bluesky board, and he responded with a terse “no.” Dorsey didn’t reply any of the follow-up posts asking him to clarify his departure.
It’s not clear when Dorsey left the board; as of Sunday morning, Bluesky’s company FAQ nonetheless recognized him as a board member. Later that afternoon, the corporate printed the next assertion:
We sincerely thank Jack for his assist funding and initiating the bluesky venture. Right this moment, Bluesky is prospering as an open supply social community operating on atproto, the decentralized protocol now we have constructed.
With Jack’s departure, we’re looking for a brand new board member for the Bluesky public profit firm who shares our dedication to constructing a social community that places folks in charge of their expertise. Extra to come back!
Dorsey first introduced Bluesky in 2019, again when he was nonetheless CEO of Twitter. He wrote that Twitter (now X) was “funding a small impartial staff of as much as 5 open supply architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized customary for social media.”
Since then, Bluesky has turn out to be an impartial public profit company, led by CEO Jay Graber, with VC backing, and it opened to most people in February.
Dorsey seems to have deleted his Bluesky account sooner or later final yr, although his departure was solely acknowledged on the time by a smattering of social media posts. (He additionally deleted his Instagram account.) Regardless of this, he remained the largest identify related to the venture.
Again on X, Dorsey has had a reasonably energetic weekend. Along with dropping company information, he’s additionally weighed in on the meat between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, unfollowed practically each different account, and posted, “don’t rely on firms to grant you rights. defend them your self utilizing freedom know-how. (you’re on one)”
This story has been up to date with an announcement from Bluesky confirming Dorsey’s departure.