Jack Dorsey criticizes Bluesky for decentralizing ethics

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There are always one or more reasons behind the departure of a company board member. It's all direction with Jack Dorsey and Bluesky. Speaking to Pirates Wire this week, Bluesky's creator said the company is moving away from its original decentralized ethos and looking more like a traditional social media app, an app he originally intended to get rid of.

“This is repeating all the mistakes we've made as a company. It's not really a decentralized protocol. It's another app. It's another app that follows in Twitter's footsteps, but for a different segment of the public,” Dorsey said.

Dorsey's original vision for Bluesky was to create a social media protocol that would overcome the challenges faced by centralized platforms such as those faced by Twitter (now X). Bluesky said he supports free speech and doesn't see restrictions on publicly traded companies based on advertising revenue.

However, as Bluesky grew, it began to incorporate more traditional corporate elements, including forming a board and seeking venture capital funding. For someone deeply committed to decentralization, it's a clear departure from his original goals for the project.

Everything we want about decentralization, everything we want from [open-source] Protocol, suddenly became a company with VCs and a board. That's not what I wanted, that's not what I set out to create,” Dorsey said.

According to him, this shift, coupled with a growing focus on application development and modest tools, has pushed Bluesky away from being a truly decentralized protocol.

Commenting on Blueskin's “anti-Twitter” public opinion, Dorsey said that's not the foundation's goal. Bluesky was intended to be an independent protocol rather than a direct competitor.

Dorsey points out the limitations of the advertising-based revenue model of social media platforms, which he believes undermines content policies and platform governance. It suggests that alternative sources of revenue, such as subscriptions and commerce, may provide a more sustainable and less disruptive approach.

Earlier this week, the team behind Bluesky announced that Dorsey was no longer on its board of directors. At the time, neither Dorsey nor Bluesky publicly commented on the origin.

After leaving Bluesky, Dorsey turned his attention to Nostr, a protocol he considered a more accurate reflection of his decentralized social media ambitions without a central authority or corporate structure.

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