Dick Costolo is stepping down as chief executive of Twitter, the company has announced, the BBC reports.

The social messaging service’s co-founder Jack Dorsey will take over as interim chief on 1 July and stay until a replacement can be found.

Mr Costolo had been under pressure from investors unhappy with the firm’s user growth.

In a statement, he said he was “tremendously proud of the Twitter team”.

Twitter said that its board had formed a committee to undertake the task of finding a successor.