Jack Dorsey announces $1 million grant for centralized instant messaging service Signal

Jack Dorsey recently pledged to give $1 million each year to the encrypted messaging app Signal. The funding effort is part of a larger project by the Twitter founder to promote the development of the open internet in an industry that needs improvement on all sides.

According to Dorsey, social media should not be in the hands of a single entity or group of entities. In addition, Block’s co-founder and CEO also said that the social media space should resist corporate and government influence.

Dorsey also expressed his concerns about the current state of Twitter. In his opinion, the state and prospects of Twitter are not up to the standards he had hoped to achieve. In addition, the billionaire entrepreneur and Internet programmer also expressed his disapproval of the harassment of the company’s staff. Calling the harassment short-sighted and dangerous, Jack Dorsey said it was time to move on with the announcement of Signal’s funding commitment. He also added that more similar grants are coming and even asked for recommendations.

Jack Dorsey details Twitter Vision’s situation amid Signal support announcement

In a blog post, Jack Dorsey detailed his take on the state of Twitter, from his initial vision for the company to the current social media climate. According to the Internet entrepreneur, his vision for the social media giant disappeared in 2020 with the admission of an anonymous activist investor.

Dorsey’s original vision for Twitter had three components. The vision was that social media would be resilient to external private and public organizational control and that only the original author would have the power to remove the content he or she produces. While at the helm of Twitter, Dorsey also championed the idea that moderation should be implemented by algorithmic choice. Recounting his final departure from Twitter following the failure to implement these principles, Dorsey said

“I had no hope of achieving anything as a public company without any defense mechanisms (the lack of dual-class shares being a key part of that). I planned my exit at that point knowing that I was no longer a good fit for the company.”

Dorsey also admitted that his missteps inadvertently gave too much power to Twitter’s internal structure instead of its users. As he put it:

“The biggest mistake I made was continuing to invest in building tools that allow us to manage the public conversation, instead of building tools that allow people using Twitter to easily manage it for themselves.”

Block’s CEO also addressed the issue of the “Twitter Files,” saying there was no hidden agenda or bad intent. According to Dorsey, everyone acted on the best information present at the time. In addition, he said that his management did the right thing for the public company’s business at the time, but less for the Internet and society.

In other Dorsey-related developments, the blockchain boss’s tech conglomerate recently invested in an Africa-based bitcoin miner. The initiative aims to provide subsidized energy to hard-to-reach areas in rural Africa.