By Arul Louis New York, Nov 30, : .Twitter has named Parag Agrawal as its CEO to replace Jack Dorsey.
The embattled social media company announced Monday that Parag was appointed by Twitter.
The IIT Bombay graduate rises to one the most powerful positions in the social media universe.
This role is being criticized by different political forces around world for its ability to control discourses and sometimes be a conduit for disinformation.
He will have to navigate the political minefields of Social Media and set the company’s financial records straight.
Agrawal joins a select number of Indian-American CEOs leading technology companies in the US.
Sundar Pichai is the head of Google and its parent company Alphabet.Satya Nadella from Microsoft, Arvind Krishna from IBM, and Shantanu Narayen from Adobe are also included.
Agrawal stated, “I am incredibly energised and excited by the opportunities ahead.
We will continue to improve our execution and deliver tremendous value to our shareholders and customers as we transform the future of public discourse.
According to Twitter, Agrawal holds a PhD from Stanford University.
He joined Twitter in 2011 and became its Chief Technology Officer in 2017.
Dorsey stated, “My trust is deep in Parag as Twitter CEO.His contribution over the past ten years has been transformative.I am deeply grateful to his talent, heart, and soul.It’s his turn to lead.
Brett Taylor, who will take over as the Twitter board chairman, stated that “Parag understands Twitter” and is keen to realize the company’s unique potential.
He has been instrumental in tackling some of our most important priorities, including speeding up our development velocity.I know he will continue to run the show to improve execution and deliver results.
Twitter founder Dorsey is stepping down from his position as CEO.This has caused controversy in India and the USA.
During a trip to India, he took a picture with a poster that displayed a message based on caste, “Smash Brahminical patriarchy”.
Later, Twitter separated him from the sentiments expressed in the poster.
Twitter posted a cautionary note about a video of the Ayodhya Temple, “The following media contains potentially sensitive content,” but allowed protesters to post any offensive words without caution.
Agrawal will be diving into the political controversies worldwide that have arisen under Dorsey’s tenure.
These controversies have tested the limits on free speech, election propagandism and corporate control of public discourse.Agrawal has been the primary platform for governments and corporations to announce their announcements directly to the public.
Most media are left to follow up the posts.
Twitter banned Donald Trump, accusing him of inciting violence and questioning the legitimacy to have been elected President.
Twitter allows controversial characters such as Iran’s Ayatollah Muhammad Ali Khameini, and organizations like the Taliban to use it.
Twitter has been accused by Republicans of censoring right-wing voices and Democrats of amplifying right-wing views.
Dorsey stated that “Impartiality” was the guiding principle at a Congressional hearing. “We don’t consider political perspectives, viewpoints or party affiliation in any policy or enforcement decision.”
Twitter’s algorithm-driven tweeting is the root of all the controversies.
Twitter recently acknowledged that the right received more “algorithmic amplification” than the left.
Agrawal was “leading work to improve the development velocity and advance the state of machine-learning across the company”, according to the announcement.
This background gives him greater insight into the intersection between algorithms and political and sociological discourses, which he uses to address allegations of political or social partisanship.
Agrawal faces another challenge because Twitter has not been in a position to monetise its nearly 400 million users as Facebook and other social media platforms.
Twitter, despite its ubiquitous status, has not had the same stellar stock performance as other tech companies like Facebook.It closed at $77.06 on February 26th, 2021 and was trading at $46 on Monday afternoon.
Twitter is also facing new challenges from ‘Koo” in India, where Twitter has 22.1 million users, which is behind Japan and the USA.
Koo is trying become an alternative to Twitter’s perceived control over the media.Koo is more open to different points of view and reaches out to countries such as Nigeria.
(Arul Louis can also be reached at [email protected]).
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