Overview
- Jack Dorsey posted “just setting up my twttr.” on March 21, 2006, launching the project that became Twitter and later X.
- The service evolved from an internal Odeo tool to a public platform on July 15, 2006, then grew into a real-time channel for journalists, politicians and activists.
- Usage surged in the early 2010s, with roughly 100 million new registrations in 2010 and more than 304 million users by 2015.
- Product rules changed over time, including a 2017 character limit increase to 280 and paid options that permit much longer posts.
- Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for about $44 billion, introduced restructuring and policy shifts, rebranded it as X in 2023, and drew criticism over misinformation, extremist and antisemitic content, AI-generated posts and user departures.