In a surprising move, Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter and current CEO of Block, has deleted his Instagram account, releasing the sought-after handle “@jack” back into the pool of available usernames. Typically, such coveted handles are sold for substantial sums on the secondary market. Dorsey announced the deletion on the decentralized social media platform Nostr, revealing that he made the decision after years of inactivity on the platform.
Dorsey’s connection to Instagram dates back to its early days. He revealed that he was one of the first 10 users on the platform and was an angel investor during its early stages. Interestingly, Instagram’s co-founder, Kevin Systrom, had been an intern at Odeo, the organization founded by Dorsey in 2005, which later transformed into the Obvious Corporation and played a crucial role in the birth of Twitter.
Dorsey’s decision to cease using Instagram came after the platform was acquired by Facebook (now Meta). He halted his activity on Instagram in response to learning about the acquisition, as documented in the book “No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram” by Sarah Frier. Notably, Dorsey’s account remained inactive since April 9, 2012, the day he found out about Instagram’s sale to Facebook.
Dorsey’s relationship with Instagram had its ups and downs. He and Systrom were friends since their time at Odeo, and Dorsey even considered buying Instagram for Twitter. However, when he discovered that Instagram was being sold to Facebook for $1 billion, he felt hurt that Systrom didn’t inform him directly about the deal. This led Dorsey to stop posting on the platform.
The recent deletion of the account holds interesting timing, considering Instagram’s emergence as a competitor to Twitter with its microblogging app, Threads. While Dorsey retains a stake in Twitter (now X) following Elon Musk’s acquisition, he has also shown support for other social networks that rival Twitter. One example is Bluesky, a Twitter competitor that received initial funding from Dorsey and aims to establish a decentralized networking protocol.
Furthermore, Dorsey has contributed to the growth of decentralized social media through his support of Nostr. He has invested around $245,000 in bitcoin and frequently engages on the platform. The timing of his Instagram account deletion sparks curiosity about the future of the “@jack” handle and its potential reassignment.
