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The First Four Facts You Should Know About Parag Agrawal, Twitter's New CEO

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Embattled Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down from his position as CEO on Monday. Effective immediately, chief technology officer Parag Agrawal was promoted to become Twitter’s new CEO.

“I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders,” Dorsey said in a cryptic statement, according to CNBC.

Dorsey also said in an email that he has known Agrawal would lead the company “for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs.”

Here are the first four facts you need to know about Dorsey’s handpicked successor.

Parag Agrawal Is a Longtime Twitter Employee

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Agrawal first joined the staff at Twitter over a decade ago, CNBC reported. While with the company, he has overseen multiple projects aimed at personalizing users’ timelines.

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Dorsey also tasked Agrawal with finding someone to lead an initiative called Project Bluesky. CNBC said the project was supposed to “give users more control over the content they see,” as well as help social media platforms enforce hate speech restrictions.

In 2017, Agrawal was named CTO for Twitter. He held that position up until his Monday promotion.

He Is a Public Trump Critic

While former President Donald Trump was in office, the American Civil Liberties Union filed over 400 lawsuits against him, according to a news release. In at least one of those instances, Agrawal donated to the organization for the expressed purpose of supporting a suit against Trump.

In a January 2017 tweet, successful investor and entrepreneur Chris Sacca said he would match donations to the ACLU in support of suing Trump.

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In response to that tweet, Agrawal posted a picture of his receipt from his donation to the ACLU.

“Just donated to @ACLU,” he said. “Inspired by your matching, thanks. As an immigrant, I have always believed this country is better than this.”

Agrawal also indicated in a separate tweet that he agreed with Dorsey’s explanation for banning Trump from Twitter, which suggested Trump or his followers perpetuated “threats to physical safety both on and off Twitter.”

He Has Come Under Fire for a Different Tweet

After Twitter announced Agrawal as its new CEO, Twitter users began to look through his old tweets. While many people did not raise issue with his views on Trump, one tweet about race has already received backlash.

“If they are not gonna make a distinction between muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists,” Agrawal tweeted in October 2010.

According to the Washington Examiner, Agrawal later explained he was quoting actor Asif Mandvi from an appearance on “The Daily Show.” That did not stop many social media users from expressing their anger about the original tweet.

Parag Agrawal Is 37 Years Old

At 37 years old, Agrawal is now the youngest CEO of an S&P 500 company, Bloomberg reported.

Agrawal was born in 1984, the same year as Meta Platforms, Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

While Twitter declined to give Agrawal’s exact date of birth due to safety concerns, Bloomberg reported he was born later than Zuckerberg’s birth date of May 14.

After he took the reigns at such a young age, it remains to be seen where Agrawal will take the social media giant as he settles in as Twitter’s new CEO.

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Grant is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He has five years of writing experience with various outlets and enjoys covering politics and sports.
Grant is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He has five years of writing experience with various outlets and enjoys covering politics and sports.




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