'I own the responsibility': Jack Dorsey apologizes amid layoffs

WASHINGTON: Co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, issued an apology on Saturday to those who were working at present and had been laid off since Elon Musk's takeover of the microblogging site.

In the midst of the massive layoffs at the San Francisco-based social media behemoth, Dorsey asserted that he was to blame for everyone's present situation and that he was aware that many people were 'angry' with him. He expressed regret for growing the "company too quickly."

"Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment is. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that," he wrote on Twitter.

While expressing his gratitude and love for every individual who has ever worked for Twitter, he added that he did not anticipate that sentiment to ever be reciprocated. "I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter. I don't expect that to be mutual in this moment...or ever...and I understand."

As per the reports of the New York Post, Dorsey one of four co-founders of Twitter stepped down as CEO a year ago this month. Dorsey created a social media business called Bluesky, a new kind of decentralised network that claims to give users and developers greater power, just a little over a week after his fellow billionaire Elon Musk purchased Twitter for an estimated $44 billion and started firing half the workforce.

According to New York Post, Dorsey, who also founded the monetary-payment company Block, chose to roll over his $1 billion stake, or 18 million shares, in Twitter rather than cashing out.

Elon Musk started laying off Twitter employees on Friday.

As per an unsigned internal memo seen by The Verge, Twitter employees were notified in the email that the layoffs were set to begin.

Musk is expected to cut roughly half of Twitter's roughly 7,500-person workforce. The layoff came a week after Musk became the Twitter owner.