"My confidence in him as managing director comes from deep within myself," assured Jack Dorsey, the charismatic co-founder of Twitter, in a letter announcing his handing over.

He explains that the personality of Parag Agrawal guided his choice.

"Parag has been involved in every critical decision taken to transform this business. He is curious, sharp, rational, creative, demanding and humble. He leads with his heart and soul and I learn from him every day," explains he does.

Mr. Agrawal arrived at Twitter ten years ago and became its chief technology officer in 2017, according to a biography published by the group.

A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, India, and holder of a thesis obtained at the prestigious California University of Stanford, he worked through Microsoft, Yahoo and the operator AT&T.

Almost unknown to the general public until now, he went from 24,000 subscribers to his Twitter account to 150,000 within hours of his appointment.

Jack Dorsey has close to 6 million.

"I recognize that some of you know me well, others just a little and some not at all," Parag Agrawal wrote to the 5,500 employees of the San Francisco-based company in an open letter.

"More rigor"

“I joined the company when we were less than 1,000 employees,” he continued.

"I have seen the ups and downs, the challenges and the obstacles, the victories and the mistakes. (...) There is no limit to what we can accomplish together."

Parag Agrawal has played a major role in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies relating to machine learning for the platform.

According to analyst Carolina Milanesi, these specialties make him a "natural choice" because they "will become more and more essential to make the platform healthier, more attractive for users and more profitable for the company".

"We will perhaps also see more rigor and rationality in decision-making methods," she adds.

Jack Dorsey, known for his occasional introspective flights on the network and his interest in various fields, from bitcoin to botany, leaves his colleague some 211 million daily users said to be "monetizable" (exposed to advertisements).

The Twitter network is making very meager profits compared to the two digital advertising giants Google and Meta (Facebook).

And therefore has far fewer resources to face the challenges of moderation of content and pressure from civil society.

Hence the interest of AI systems in reconciling the fight against disinformation and extremist accounts with the promotion of content that attracts and holds the attention of users.

New Indian ruler

In 2020, in an interview with MIT Technology Review, Mr. Agrawal said the company should “focus less” on free speech.

"Most people can express themselves easily on the internet. Our role is mainly about who can be heard," he argued.

As an engineer, Parag Agrawal distinguished himself in the mechanisms of audience growth and led the small "Bluesky" ("blue sky") team, tasked in 2019 with inventing a new computer protocol that would promote more balanced, less edgy conversations.

He will now need to focus on Twitter's ability to improve profitability.

And not to become a network of "old people".

"Appointing Mr. Agrawal as the new CEO positions Twitter for the next internet age, that of the metaverse, by investing in products and features (...) that attract Gen Z loyal to TikTok," commented Mike Proulx , the vice-president of the Forrester cabinet.

Tech observers have also highlighted the immigrant quality of the new boss of the platform.

“Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM (...) and now Twitter are run by directors who grew up in India. It is wonderful to see the success of Indians in the tech world and a good reminder of the opportunities that l 'America offers immigrants,' responded Patrick Collison, boss of the payment service Stripe.

Parag Agrawal is in a relationship with a professor of medicine at Stanford.

Their son Ansh Agrawal, born in 2018, already has a Twitter account - private.

© 2021 AFP