Bluesky repeats all Twitter mistakes, says Jack Dorsey

Bluesky recently confirmed that Jack Dorsey will no longer be part of the company’s board of directors. Now, Dorsey has revealed more details about it, including his views on the company’s current situation regarding the original idea. The Twitter co-founder believes Bluesky is repeating the same mistakes Twitter made.

Dorsey’s original idea for Bluesky is a far cry from the company’s current reality

In a recent interview with Mike Solana, Dorsey has made it clear how different his original idea came from the current state of Bluesky. He wanted to return to an idea he had during Twitter’s inception: an open-source social platform without strict corporate controls. With Twitter, this became impossible if it wanted to continue growing as a company. So in 2019 he played a key role in the birth of the Bluesky project.

Dorsey wanted Bluesky to be a non-profit, open source protocol, and Twitter would be the first to benefit from it. He did not want the project to become an independent company, as this usually involves shareholder control and other corporate issues. He also opposed the moderation systems that were implemented as the service became more popular.

Implementing moderation tools was a mistake by Bluesky, the Twitter co-founder claims

Dorsey appears to share with Musk the idea of ​​preserving freedom of expression on social platforms. With Bluesky he wanted to take it to a point where it was no longer possible on Twitter. So those who no longer felt happy on Twitter could turn to alternatives based on the protocol. However, in this regard, he said that “little by little, Jay (Graber, CEO of Bluesky) and the team started asking for moderation tools, and bringing people out. And unfortunately they continued with that. That was the second moment I thought: no. This is literally a repeat of all the mistakes we have made as a company.”

In the past, Dorsey has reiterated that Twitter’s problem was about the interests of corporations and advertisers. He called this Twitter’s “original sin” several times. Bluesky was born to provide an alternative to that situation. But over time, they follow the same path he wanted to “escape.” According to the Twitter co-founder, implementing moderation tools was another mistake by Bluesky.

Even when he was part of Twitter, Dorsey was not happy with all the moderation measures they demanded of him. That’s one of the reasons why he supported Elon Musk in purchasing Twitter.

A Bluesky engineer responded harshly to Dorsey’s words

The Twitter co-founder’s comments about Bluesky’s mistakes reached the ears of the current development team. As expected, they were not recorded in the best way, especially by Paul Frazee, Bluesky’s protocol engineer. According to him, it was Musk who killed the idea that Twitter would be the first platform to abuse the Bluesky protocol.

Frazee also has a harsh opinion on the idea of ​​an unmoderated social platform. More specifically, he considers it a “ridiculous idea.” He uses the argument that Bluesky-based apps would certainly not be accepted by app stores and regulators. However, this is consistent with Dorsey’s original idea that Bluesky should not be a profit-seeking company.

Dorsey is funding projects similar to his original idea

Currently, Jack Dorsey is funding Nostr, a decentralized social platform that seems to be in line with his original idea. While he admits it’s not the most intuitive or beautiful social platform available, he says that “if you really believe in censorship resistance and freedom of expression, you should use the technologies that actually make that possible, and defend your rights. ”