Jack Dorsey quits Instagram

In a surprise move, former Twitter Co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, but now Block CEO, has deleted his Instagram account, meaning that the @jack handle on Instagram is now free and up for grabs.

Dorsey posted on the decentralized social media platform called Nostr:

I deleted my Instagram account. Don’t know why it took me so long. I think I was in the first 10 accounts on the platform, and one of the first angel investors.

Kevin (Systrom) was our intern at Odeo. When they were sold to FB, I stopped using it. Will be interesting to see what happens with the @name.

That said, the former Twitter CEO has backed other social networks that compete with Twitter, so the account deletion is probably not sour grapes over Threads.

Dorsey also shared that when Instagram was sold to Facebook (now Meta), he stopped using the app — a history that was documented in Sarah Frier’s book, “No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram.”

Systrom co-founded Instagram, along with Mike Krieger. He resigned as the CEO of Instagram on September 24, 2018. Meta (then Facebook) bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012.

Odeo was the organization founded by Noah Glass and Evan Williams in 2005, that later reformed as the Obvious Corporation and ended up being the birthplace of Twitter.

Meanwhile, as Meta launched its Twitter rival Threads on Instagram, Dorsey-backed Bluesky announced it has raised $8 million to support its mission and growth.

Bluesky will also offer a paid service that provides custom domains for end users who want to have a unique domain as their handle on the service. The Twitter competitor raised $8 million in a seed round led by Neo, a community-led firm with partners like Ali Partovi and Suzanne Xie.

Jack Dorsey concluded today’s post by saying [it] “Will be interesting to see what happens with the @name…” And we couldn’t agree more.