Overview
- Twitter launched on March 21, 2006, with Jack Dorsey’s first message, “just setting up my twttr.”
- It grew into a central arena for politics and media, with tweets at times beating official statements and wire services to the news.
- The platform helped chronicle major events including Iran’s 2009 protests, the Arab Spring, Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, and the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
- Key shifts included expanding the character limit to 280 in 2017 and permanently suspending Donald Trump after the January 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill.
- Elon Musk bought the company in 2022 and rebranded it as X in 2023, with journalists reporting weaker moderation, paid verification, and a rise in bots, scams, and low-quality AI content.