On Friday, August 18, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey quit Instagram twelve years after joining the platform. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Dorsey announced that he has deleted his Instagram profile. Dorsey added that he was among the first ten users who joined Instagram when it was launched in 2010.
“Deleted my Instagram account after 12 years. Was one of the first 10 accounts I believe, and one of the first angel investors. Who will they give the @jack handle to?” Jack Dorsey posted on X.
Although Dorsey did not specify the reason behind quitting Instagram, he responded to an X user who asked the reason behind his move saying, “All the reasons are too meta to be interesting.”
While responding to a reply to his post hailing WhatsApp as the “King”, Dorsey termed it “compromised”.
Dorsey has been critical of Meta and its recently introduced Threads App, and had called it a “Twitter Clone”. On July 4, Dorsey raised privacy concerns with regards to Threads App as he shared a screenshot of data collected by Threads from its users. The data collected by the app included location, search and browsing history, sensitive information, financial information etc.
Meanwhile, the X owner and CTO Elon Musk responded to Dorsey’s post with a fire emoji.
It is notable that Dorsey has been critical of Meta platforms over the years and had even said that Instagram is harmful to mental health. Moreover, he said it is used to spread misinformation. In a post on Nostr, Dorsey stated that he was among the Instagram users when the co-founder Kevin Sistrom was working as an intern at Odeo. It is interesting to note that Odeo was an organisation founded in 2005 by Noah Glass and Evan Wiliams. Odeo later became Obvious Corporation which later became the birthplace of Twitter.
“I deleted my Instagram account. Don’t know why it took so long. I think I was the first 10 accounts on the platform, and one of the first Angel investors. Kevin was our intern at Odeo. When they sold to FB, I stopped using it. Will be interesting to see what happens with the @name,” Dorsey wrote on Nostr.
Notably, Dorsey stepped down as Twitter CEO in 2021, and in 2022, Elon Musk acquired Twitter. Even though Dorsey still holds a certain stake in Twitter/X, he has co-founded rival application Bluesky and supported Nostr.