Jack Dorsey referred to Twitter, the privately owned company that blocked links to competing social media platforms like Mastodon, as "freedom technology". What a clown.
He also deleted his account on Bluesky announced he's no longer on Bluesky's board of directors. Jack's involvement was one of the reasons I was never excited about #Bluesky, TBH.
@docpop@blogdiva My opinion is that he gave up on Bluesky sometime in the middle of last year because Jay and team actually began caving to the community’s demands for some level of moderation, and Jack seemed to disagree vehemently with the notion they should moderate anything.
@docpop Bluesky is a failed experiment, that was only ever intended as a proof-of-concept... and Jack has money tied to X still, so he's more than willing to lie for Elon, even if it means betraying Twitter's former customers.
@docpop Well, there goes one of my criticisms of Bluesky. What remains is the reinvention of the wheel, and lack of support for ActivityPub or integration with the wider social ecosystem.
@markdarb@docpop It's enough simply to say that Bluesky is quite small, has failed to garner sustainable attention or growth, and was designed as simply a proof-of-concept anyway, not as a functional enterprise.
Jack going away is a likely sign that continued funding for the proof-of-concept has been yoinked as well.
@KraftTea In political circles that I swim in, Twitter and Bluesky are regarded as must-haves for staying politically connected, while Mastodon is regarded as a niche network that is hostile to newcomers. This annoys me to no end and I refuse to join Twitter or Bluesky.
@markdarb@docpop Given that the seed capital for Bluesky is likely drying up with Jack's departure, and those involved were drawing big paychecks, and will likely maintain that expectation, I suspect we'll see Bluesky forced to seek out VC funding, which may be hard to do. If it was worth much as a business, Jack would likely not cut ties.
There are lots of ways they can try to monetize it, basically making it less competitive vs. Mastodon. And demographics are old.
@KraftTea@markdarb@docpop The real question is how or why they would raise more now as the influence/performance has been underwhelming.
Bluesky already raised a bunch of funding about a year ago (has it been that long?), and that list included some (certain) names in tech. (Too lazy to find the TechCrunch link for that article, etc.)
Here is what jack wrote (on Twitter): “don’t depend on corporations to grant you rights. defend them yourself using freedom technology. (you’re on one)”
It’s likely what he was ATTEMPTING to say was something like: “don’t depend on corporations (like the one you are on) to grant you rights.”, but phrased it oddly. He even raved about open protocols in a follow up tweet. Thanks to @John for pointing that out to me.
@docpop@John it confounds me how he has been involved in so many significant businesses and every time he says something it just sounds insane. He's been so into himself for years and none of his statements have any logic behind them. He really seems out of touch with reality.
@someguyjg@John yeah, I think that lack of logic is on display here too. He deleted his bluesky account, then signed into twitter to talk about how important it is that we all use open protocols.
@docpop it's possible he's referring to Twitter as a corporation with "you're on one," and freedom technology is an oblique reference to Nostr, his new thing.
I don't mind that Nostr exists, but it doesn't seem likely to become my thing.
@John oh it's possible. I don't read it that way at first, but I could understand if that's what he was trying to say.
If Jack was attempting to say "don’t depend on corporations, like the one you are on, to grant you rights. defend them yourself using freedom technology.” That would fit more with his previous messaging too.
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