This article is about the social network. For the former parent company, see Twitter, Inc.

Social networking service

X

Logo used since July 2023 [a]

Homepage visited while logged out in September 2025

Formerly

Twttr (early 2006) [4]
Twitter (2006–2023)

Type of site Social networking service

Available in Multilingual

Founded March 21, 2006; 19 years ago (2006-03-21), in San Francisco, California, U.S.

Headquarters Current: Bastrop, TX Formerly: Twitter Building (San Francisco, CA)

Area served Worldwide, except blocking countries

Owner

Odeo (March–October 2006)
Obvious Corporation (2006–2007)
Twitter, Inc. (2007–2023)
X Corp. (2023–present)

Founders

Chairman Elon Musk

URL x.com (formerly twitter.com)

Registration Required [b]

Launched July 15, 2006; 19 years ago (2006-07-15)

Current status Active

Native clients on

Content license Recommendation algorithm: AGPL-3.0 [5] Community Notes algorithm: Apache-2.0 [6] Emojis: MIT, CC-BY-4.0 [7] Other content and services: Proprietary [8]

Written in

X, a platform now known more for its rapid, often tumultuous transformations than its original avian moniker, was formerly recognized globally as Twitter [c]. This American microblogging and social networking service has cemented its position as one of the world's preeminent social media platforms, consistently ranking among the most-visited websites on the internet [10] [11]. Users on X engage in a variety of communication, primarily by sharing concise text messages, images, and videos in posts that were once affectionately, and now unofficially, known as "tweets". Beyond these public declarations, the platform facilitates more intimate interactions, allowing users to like and engage with others' content. [12]

The platform's functionalities extend far beyond mere public posts. It incorporates a robust direct messaging system for private conversations, offers video and audio calling capabilities, and provides tools for personal organization such as bookmarks and custom lists. Furthermore, "Communities" allow users to gather around shared interests, while the integration of the Grok chatbot provides an AI-powered conversational agent. In a move to expand its utility, X also includes a job search function [13] and a social audio feature known as X Spaces, enabling live voice conversations. A particularly notable feature is Community Notes, which empowers approved users to collaboratively add context and corrections to potentially misleading posts, a crowdsourced effort to combat misinformation.

The genesis of this digital behemoth, then humbly dubbed "twttr," occurred in March 2006. It was the brainchild of a quartet of founders: Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. The service officially launched to the public in July of the same year, undergoing a rebrand to "Twitter" a few months later. Its ascent was nothing short of meteoric; by 2012, an impressive user base exceeding 100 million individuals was generating a staggering 340 million posts daily. [14] The corporate entity, Twitter, Inc., established its primary operations in the vibrant city of San Francisco, California, and extended its global footprint with more than 25 offices worldwide. [15]

A defining characteristic of the service in its nascent stages was the enforced brevity of its posts. Initially, users were constrained to a mere 140 characters, a limitation that was expanded to a slightly more generous 280 characters in 2017. However, in a move reflective of the platform's evolving monetization strategy, this character restriction was entirely lifted for subscribed accounts in 2023, allowing for significantly longer expressions. [16] Curiously, a concentrated effort from a minority of users drives the majority of content, with estimates suggesting that a mere 10% of users are responsible for over 80% of all posts. [17] [18] The digital landscape of the platform is also populated by a substantial non-human element; a 2020 assessment indicated that approximately 48 million accounts, representing a significant 15% of the total, were operated by internet bots rather than genuine human users. [19]

The service is currently under the ownership of the American corporation X Corp., a legal entity established in March 2023 to succeed its former parent, Twitter, Inc.. This transition followed the momentous October 2022 acquisition of Twitter by the enigmatic entrepreneur Elon Musk for a colossal sum of US$44 billion. Musk articulated his primary motivation for this ambitious takeover as a desire to champion and promote free speech on the platform, envisioning it as a global forum for unfettered expression. However, since his acquisition, the platform has been subjected to considerable criticism, with many observers noting an alarming increase in the proliferation of disinformation [20] [21] [22] and hate speech [23] [24] [25].

In a strategic leadership shift, Linda Yaccarino assumed the role of CEO on June 5, 2023, taking the reins from Musk, who nevertheless retained significant influence as the chairman and chief technology officer. [26] [27] [28] A pivotal moment arrived in July 2023 when Musk announced the radical decision to rebrand Twitter to "X," signaling the retirement of its iconic bird logo. This transformative process was fully completed by May 2024. [29] [30] Further demonstrating the intertwined nature of Musk's ventures, in March 2025, X Corp. itself was acquired by xAI, another of Musk's artificial intelligence enterprises. This all-stock transaction valued X at $33 billion, with a comprehensive valuation reaching$ 45 billion when accounting for $12 billion in existing debt. Concurrently, [xAI](/XAI_(company)) itself was assessed at a formidable$ 80 billion. [31] [32] The leadership changes continued into July 2025, when Linda Yaccarino ultimately stepped down from her position as CEO. [33]

History

Main article: History of Twitter
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Twitter.

2006–2021

A sketch, circa 2006, by Jack Dorsey, envisioning an SMS-based social network. It's fascinating how a few lines on paper can evolve into a global communication network, though one might argue the simplicity of the sketch sometimes feels more profound than the digital reality.

Jack Dorsey, one of the principal architects of the platform, has long maintained that he first conceived the fundamental concept in 2006: an individual leveraging an SMS service to disseminate short messages to a select, small group. [34] The original internal project code name for this burgeoning service was "twttr." This rather unconventional moniker, as Evan Williams later acknowledged, was attributed to Noah Glass [35]. The inspiration for this peculiar spelling drew from popular platforms of the era like Flickr and the practical constraint of the five-character length prevalent in American SMS short codes. It's a testament to the early, somewhat haphazard nature of tech startups that the chosen domain, twitter.com, was already occupied. Consequently, it took a full six months after the initial launch of "twttr" for the founding team to successfully acquire the desired domain and officially rename the service to "Twitter." [36] The foundational work on this ambitious project commenced in February 2006. [37]

The initial prototype of Twitter, meticulously developed by Dorsey in collaboration with contractor Florian Weber, served as a strictly internal communication tool for employees at Odeo, a podcasting company. [37] The fully fleshed-out version of the service was then introduced to the broader public on July 15, 2006. [38] A significant corporate restructuring took place in October 2006, when Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey, and several other key personnel from Odeo formed a new entity, Obvious Corporation. This new venture then proceeded to acquire Odeo from its existing investors and shareholders. [39] In a move that would later be shrouded in some controversy, Williams terminated Glass, whose pivotal contributions to Twitter's early development remained largely unacknowledged until 2011. [40] Twitter eventually spun off from Obvious Corporation to become its own independent company in April 2007. [41]

The true tipping point for Twitter's burgeoning popularity is widely considered to be the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference. During this influential event, the platform's Twitter usage experienced a dramatic surge, escalating from a modest 20,000 posts per day to an impressive 60,000. [42] The company subsequently embarked on a trajectory of rapid and sustained growth. In 2009, Twitter garnered significant industry recognition, winning the coveted "Breakout of the Year" Webby Award. [43] [44] By February 2010, the sheer volume of activity on the platform was undeniable, with users collectively sending 50 million posts daily. [45] The developer ecosystem surrounding Twitter also flourished, and by March 2010, the company had recorded an astounding 70,000 registered applications leveraging its API. [46] Further illustrating its exponential expansion, in June 2010, Twitter reported approximately 65 million posts being generated each day, translating to an astonishing rate of about 750 posts every second. [47] The platform's growing influence was also reflected in its market position; Compete.com noted in January 2009 that Twitter had ascended to the third-highest-ranking social networking site, a remarkable leap from its previous position at twenty-second. [48]

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, at CrunchUp, a TechCrunch event, July 2009. One wonders if he fully anticipated the digital maelstrom he was unleashing.

Between September and October 2010, the company initiated the gradual deployment of "New Twitter," a comprehensively redesigned iteration of its primary website, twitter.com. This significant overhaul introduced several key enhancements, including the groundbreaking ability to view images and videos directly within the Twitter interface, eliminating the need for users to navigate away from the site. This functionality was achieved by simply clicking on individual posts that contained links to multimedia content hosted on various supported external platforms, such as YouTube and Flickr. Accompanying these functional improvements was a complete aesthetic and structural overhaul of the user interface. [49] Demonstrating its pervasive reach in the mobile sphere, Twitter was recognized in 2019 as the 10th most downloaded mobile application of the entire decade, spanning from 2010 to 2019. [49]

On March 21, 2012, Twitter marked its sixth anniversary with a celebratory announcement: its user base had swelled to an impressive 140 million individuals, representing a substantial 40% increase since September 2011. These users were collectively generating 340 million posts each day. [50] [51] A subtle yet significant branding evolution occurred on June 5, 2012, when the company unveiled a modified logo through its official blog. This redesign strategically removed the textual "Twitter" component, allowing the slightly refined bird icon to stand alone as the singular, instantly recognizable symbol of the platform. [52] [53] By December 18, 2012, Twitter proudly declared that it had surpassed 200 million monthly active users. [citation needed] Further solidifying its growth trajectory, data from September 2013 indicated that the platform's 200 million users were sending over 400 million posts daily, with a notable nearly 60% of these originating from mobile devices. [54]

In April 2014, Twitter underwent another substantial redesign, an update that drew immediate comparisons to the aesthetic and layout of Facebook. This iteration introduced a prominent profile picture and biography displayed in a column positioned to the left of the timeline, complemented by a full-width header image that incorporated a parallax scrolling effect. [d] [55] However, by late 2015, a concerning trend became apparent: user growth had demonstrably slowed. This observation was widely reported and scrutinized by numerous financial and technology publications, including Fortune [56], Business Insider [57], Marketing Land [58], and Quartz (in 2016) [59]. In 2019, Twitter once again revamped its user interface, aiming to modernize the user experience. [60] As of the beginning of 2019, Twitter boasted more than 330 million monthly active users. [61] The platform subsequently experienced a period of considerable growth throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as global populations increasingly turned to digital platforms for news and connection. [62] Unfortunately, this period also saw the platform's increased utilization for the dissemination of misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. [63] In response, Twitter initiated a policy of marking posts containing misleading information and appending links to independent fact-checks, a nascent attempt to curb the spread of falsehoods. [64]

In 2021, Twitter embarked on an ambitious undertaking, initiating the research phase for Bluesky. This project aimed to develop an open source decentralized social media protocol, offering users the unprecedented ability to select their preferred algorithmic curation. [65] [66] Concurrently, the same year saw the introduction of several new features designed to enhance user engagement and monetization. Twitter Spaces, a social audio feature, allowed for live voice conversations [67] [68]. "Super follows" provided a mechanism for users to subscribe to creators, granting them access to exclusive content [69]. A beta version of "ticketed Spaces" was also rolled out, enabling hosts to charge for entry to certain audio rooms, a clear step towards creator-driven revenue. [70] The platform's visual identity also received an update in August 2021, featuring adjusted color palettes and the introduction of a new proprietary font, Chirp, which notably improved the left-alignment of text in most Western languages.

Since 2022

See also: Acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk
These paragraphs are an excerpt from Twitter under Elon Musk. [edit]

The original version of the X logo. A symbol that now represents a platform in perpetual, often bewildering, flux.

The landscape of Twitter irrevocably shifted with Elon Musk's successful completion of his acquisition in October 2022. Musk initially assumed the role of CEO himself, directly overseeing the platform's operations until June 2023, when he was succeeded by Linda Yaccarino. [71] [72] A drastic rebranding effort saw Twitter officially transform into "X" on July 23, 2023, [73] with its iconic domain name, twitter.com, eventually transitioning to x.com on May 17, 2024. [74] The brief tenure of Yaccarino as CEO concluded on July 9, 2025, marking another significant leadership change in a short span. [75]

Now operating under the banner of X, the platform, while still bearing a strong resemblance to its predecessor, has been augmented with a suite of new functionalities. These include the ability to compose and share long-form texts [76], expanded options for account monetization [77], and the introduction of audio-video calling capabilities [78]. The integration of xAI's Grok chatbot [79] offers users an advanced AI assistant, and a dedicated job search function [80] has been added, aiming to broaden the platform's utility beyond social interaction. Perhaps one of the most controversial changes involved the repurposing of the platform's verification system, transforming it into a premium, subscription-based feature. [81]

In the wake of Musk's acquisition, several long-standing Twitter features were unceremoniously retired from the site. These included "Circles," a feature allowing users to share posts with a select group [82]; NFT profile pictures, which had briefly offered a way to display digital ownership [83]; and the experimental pronouns in profiles feature, which provided users with more customizable identity options [84]. Musk articulated an ambitious vision for X, aiming to evolve it beyond a mere social network into a "digital town square" and an "everything app," drawing parallels to the expansive functionalities of platforms like WeChat. [85]

The rebrand and subsequent changes have not been without significant controversy, attracting widespread criticism. Notable issues include the release of the Twitter Files, a series of internal documents that sparked debate; the abrupt suspension of ten journalists' accounts in December 2022; and the controversial practice of labeling certain media outlets as "state-affiliated" while simultaneously restricting their visibility. [86] [87] Despite Musk's eventual relinquishment of the CEO role, X continues to grapple with persistent challenges, including the rampant spread of viral misinformation [88], a troubling surge in hate speech, particularly antisemitism [89] [90], and alarming reports concerning the proliferation of child pornography [91]. In response to allegations it deemed unjust and potentially defamatory, X Corp. has initiated legal proceedings against prominent nonprofit organizations such as Media Matters and the Center for Countering Digital Hate. [86] [92]

Appearance and features

Main article: List of Twitter features

Tweets

"Twitter hashtag" redirects here. For more about hashtags, see Hashtag.
Main article: Tweet (social media)
Further information: Mention (blogging) § @ (at sign)

The account page for Wikipedia on X, July 2025. Even the collective knowledge of humanity needs a profile, it seems.

Traditionally, posts on Twitter, and now X, were, by default, publicly visible to the world. However, users have always retained the ability to restrict message delivery, limiting their content exclusively to their approved followers. For managing unwanted interactions, users are equipped with several mechanisms: they can "mute" other users to silence their content without unfollowing, "block" accounts to prevent them from viewing their posts or interacting with them, and even "remove" accounts from their list of followers, effectively curating their audience. [93] [94] [95] The platform offers multiple avenues for users to disseminate their content, including the primary X website, a variety of compatible external applications, and, in its earlier days, even via Short Message Service (SMS). [96]

The core social mechanic involves users "subscribing" to the posts of other users, a practice universally known as "following," with the subscribers themselves being termed "followers" [97] or, in a portmanteau of "Twitter" and "peeps," "tweeps" [98]. A fundamental aspect of content amplification is the ability for users to forward other users' posts to their own feed, a process that was, and often still is, colloquially referred to as a "retweet," though officially rebranded as a "repost." In 2015, Twitter introduced the "quote tweet" feature [99], now known as "quote repost," which allows users to embed an existing post within their own, adding a personal comment or contextualization. [100] Beyond sharing, users can also express approval or appreciation by simply clicking the "like" button on individual posts. [101]

The engagement metrics of posts—likes, reposts (formerly retweets), and replies—are prominently displayed next to their respective buttons within various timelines, such as on profile pages and in search results. These counters also feature on a post's standalone page, offering a clear snapshot of its reception. A notable change occurred in 2020, when "quote tweets" (now quote reposts) were given their own dedicated counter, providing more granular insight into how content is being re-shared with commentary. [99] Prior to its discontinuation in 2020, the legacy desktop front end of Twitter offered a visual flourish: a row adorned with miniature profile pictures of up to ten users who had liked or retweeted a post, alongside a distinct reply counter next to the corresponding button on a post's individual page. [102] [103]

X retains the functionality for users to update their profile information directly via their mobile phones, whether through traditional text messaging or through the dedicated mobile applications. [104] In a long-anticipated development, Twitter announced in a 2022 post that it was actively testing the ability to edit a post, a feature initially rolled out to a select group of users. The company eventually confirmed that all users subscribed to Twitter Blue (now X Premium) would gain access to this much-requested functionality. [105] To organize and categorize discussions, users can group posts together by specific topics or types through the use of hashtags—words or phrases prefaced with the ubiquitous " # " sign. Similarly, the " @ " sign, immediately followed by a username, serves as the standard protocol for mentioning or directly replying to other users, creating a direct conversational thread. [106] In 2014, Twitter introduced "hashflags," a playful feature where certain hashtags would automatically generate a custom emoji alongside them for a designated period. [107] These hashflags could either be generated by Twitter itself, often for major global events [108], or acquired by corporations as a premium advertising tool. [109] To amplify a message from another user and disseminate it to one's own followers, a user simply clicks the "repost" button embedded within the original post. The platform also allows for nested conversations, enabling users to reply to other accounts' replies. Furthermore, users possess granular control over their interactions, with the ability to hide replies to their own messages and, crucially, to pre-select who is permitted to reply to each of their posts before they are even sent—options ranging from anyone, to accounts that follow the author, to specific designated accounts, or even no one at all. [110] [111]

The platform's original, famously strict 140-character limit, a digital haiku of communication, has undergone a gradual but significant relaxation over the years. In 2016, Twitter announced a crucial policy change: attachments, links, and various media types such as photos, videos, and even the person's handle, would no longer contribute to the character count. [112] [113] This was further refined in 2017, when Twitter handles were similarly excluded from the count [114], and the platform ultimately doubled its character limitation to a more expansive 280. [115] Under this updated limit, the counting of glyphs became more nuanced, with each character being assigned a variable number depending on the script from which it originated. [115] In a move that further democratized longer-form content for its paying users, from 2023 onwards, Twitter Blue (now X Premium) subscribers gained the ability to craft posts stretching up to an impressive 4,000 characters in length. [116]

t.co is Twitter's proprietary URL shortening service [117]. Its functionality is exclusively reserved for links disseminated on the Twitter platform and is not available for general public use as a standalone service [117]. Consequently, every link posted on Twitter is automatically enveloped by a t.co wrapper [118]. Twitter implemented this service with a dual purpose: primarily to safeguard users from potentially malicious sites [117], and secondarily, to enable the tracking of clicks on links embedded within posts, providing valuable analytics [117] [119].

In June 2011, Twitter heralded the introduction of its own integrated photo-sharing service, a feature designed to streamline the user experience by allowing direct photo uploads and attachments to posts straight from Twitter.com. [120] This integration also enhanced search capabilities, as users gained the ability to incorporate images into Twitter's search results by adding relevant hashtags to their posts. [121] The company further articulated plans to develop comprehensive photo galleries, intended to aggregate and syndicate all images that a user had uploaded, both directly to Twitter and through third-party services like TwitPic. [121] A significant accessibility enhancement arrived in 2016 when Twitter introduced the ability to append a caption of up to 480 characters to each image attached to a post [122] [123]. These descriptive captions were made accessible through screen reading software and could also be viewed by hovering a mouse over a picture within platforms like TweetDeck. In a move towards broader inclusivity, Twitter made the functionality to add and view these image descriptions globally available in 2022. Descriptions can now be added to any uploaded image, with an expanded limit of 1000 characters. Images featuring a description are denoted by an "ALT" badge in the bottom left corner, which, when clicked, reveals the comprehensive description. [124]

In 2015, Twitter began to roll out an engaging new feature: the ability to attach poll questions directly to posts. These polls typically remain open for user participation for a duration of up to 7 days, and crucially, the identities of the voters remain anonymous, encouraging honest engagement. [125] In its formative years, Twitter offered users the convenience of interacting with the platform via SMS. However, citing vulnerabilities that had been exploited by hackers, Twitter largely discontinued this service in most countries in 2023. [126] [127]

Multimedia content

In 2016, Twitter strategically pivoted to place a significantly larger emphasis on live streaming video programming, positioning itself as a destination for real-time events. This shift saw the platform hosting major political events, including live streams of both the Republican and Democratic national conventions. [128] Further solidifying its commitment to live content, Twitter successfully secured a bid for non-exclusive streaming rights to ten NFL games during the 2016 season, bringing professional sports directly to its users. [129] [130] Building on this momentum, in 2017, Twitter announced ambitious plans to construct its own dedicated 24-hour streaming video channel, to be hosted directly within the service and featuring a diverse array of content sourced from various partners. [129] [131] The platform unveiled a slew of new and expanded partnerships for its streaming video services at a dedicated event, including collaborations with major entities such as Bloomberg, BuzzFeed, Cheddar, IMG Fashion, Live Nation Entertainment, Major League Baseball, MTV and BET, NFL Network, the PGA Tour, The Players' Tribune, Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens' Propagate, The Verge, Stadium, and the WNBA. [132] As of the first quarter of 2017, Twitter boasted an impressive roster of over 200 content partners, who collectively streamed more than 800 hours of video across 450 distinct events. [132]

Twitter Spaces, a social audio feature, offers users a dynamic live-audio virtual environment for engaging in conversations. Within a "Space," a maximum of 13 individuals are permitted to be "onstage" simultaneously, allowing for focused discussions. While initially, the feature was restricted to users possessing at least 600 followers, this barrier was removed in October 2021, democratizing access and enabling any Twitter user to create and host a Space. [133]

In March 2020, Twitter commenced testing a "stories" feature, a popular ephemeral content format, which it branded as "fleets" in select international markets. [134] [135] This feature officially launched globally on November 17, 2020. [136] [137] Fleets were designed to contain both text and media, and crucially, they were only accessible for a period of 24 hours after their initial posting, mirroring the transient nature of stories on other platforms. Access to fleets was confined to the Twitter mobile application. [134] In a move to monetize this new content format, Twitter announced its intention to begin implementing advertising within fleets in June 2021. [138] However, the lifespan of fleets proved to be short-lived, as the feature was unceremoniously removed in August 2021. Twitter's original intention for fleets was to encourage a broader base of users to post more regularly, but internal analysis revealed that they were predominantly utilized by already active users, failing to achieve their desired impact. [139]

Lists

In late 2009, the platform introduced the "Twitter Lists" feature, a significant enhancement designed to streamline user engagement. This innovation allowed users to curate and follow a predefined collection of accounts collectively, offering an alternative to the more laborious process of individually following each user. [97] [143] As it currently stands, lists can be configured with either public or private visibility settings. Public lists possess the potential to be recommended to users through the general Lists interface and are also discoverable within search results. [144] When a user opts to follow a public list, it becomes visible within the "View Lists" section of their profile, thereby enabling other users to easily discover and follow it themselves. [145] Conversely, private lists offer a more exclusive experience, as they can only be accessed and followed if the creator explicitly shares a specific link to their list. Functionally, lists integrate seamlessly into the Twitter interface, adding a distinct tab labeled with the list's chosen title, such as "News" or "Economics," providing a tailored content feed.

Moments

In October 2015, Twitter introduced "Moments," a feature designed to allow users to curate and collect posts from other users into a larger, cohesive narrative or collection. Initially, Twitter envisioned this feature as a tool primarily for its in-house editorial team and other established partners. These curated Moments would then populate a dedicated tab within Twitter's applications, serving as a dynamic chronicle of breaking news headlines, significant sporting events, and other compelling content. [146] [147] This exclusive access was later democratized, and in September 2016, the ability to create Moments was extended to all Twitter users, empowering a broader community to craft their own curated stories. [148]

Algorithm

On October 21, 2021, a comprehensive report, derived from a "long-running, massive-scale randomized experiment," meticulously analyzed "millions of tweets sent between 1 April and 15 August 2020." The findings were stark: Twitter's machine learning recommendation algorithm demonstrated a clear tendency to amplify right-leaning political content on personalized user Home timelines. [149] [150] The report meticulously compared seven countries with significant active Twitter user bases and available data—namely Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, and Spain—and specifically examined posts originating "from major political groups and politicians." [149] [150] Researchers utilized the 2019 Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHESDATA) to accurately position various political parties along an ideological spectrum within each respective country. [149] The "machine learning algorithms," initially introduced by Twitter in 2016, were responsible for personalizing a staggering 99% of users' feeds. This personalization involved displaying posts (including older content and reposts from accounts the user had not explicitly followed) that the algorithm had "deemed relevant" based on the users' past preferences. [149] To establish a control group, Twitter randomly selected 1% of its users whose Home timelines were configured to display content in a traditional reverse-chronological order, solely from the accounts they directly followed. [149]

Mobile

Twitter has historically provided dedicated mobile applications for popular operating systems, including iPhone, iPad, and Android, ensuring broad accessibility for its user base. [151] In April 2017, recognizing the need to cater to regions with less reliable and slower Internet connections, Twitter introduced "Twitter Lite." This progressive web app was meticulously designed to be lightweight, with a minimal footprint of less than one megabyte, making it ideal for devices with limited storage capacity and optimizing performance in challenging network environments. [152] [153]

X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue)

On June 3, 2021, Twitter announced the launch of a new paid subscription service, initially christened "Twitter Blue." Following the platform's comprehensive rebranding to "X", this subscription service underwent a subsequent name change, first to "X Blue" (or simply "Blue"), and then, on August 5, 2023, it was officially rebranded as X Premium (or simply "Premium"). [154] [155] This subscription tier provides users with access to a suite of additional premium features, enhancing their overall experience on the service. [156] [157] Further expanding its premium offerings, in November 2023, X introduced a "Premium+" subscription. This higher-tier plan, commanding a steeper monthly fee, promised additional benefits, most notably the complete omission of advertisements from both the "For You" and "Following" feeds, providing an uninterrupted browsing experience. [158]

Verification of paid accounts

Main article: Twitter verification

In November 2022, in the wake of his acquisition, Elon Musk unveiled ambitious plans to integrate account verification into the Twitter Blue subscription service. This new premium offering was also slated to include the ability for users to upload longer audio and video content. A previous perk, which offered advertising-free access to news articles from participating publishers, was notably discontinued. However, Musk did indicate a desire for Twitter to collaborate with publishers on a similar, albeit revamped, "paywall bypass" benefit in the future. [159] [160] [161] Musk had been a vocal proponent of a more expensive iteration of Twitter Blue, arguing that a significant increase in subscription revenue would be essential to offset the considerable decline in advertising revenue the platform was experiencing. [162] X, the rebranded platform, explicitly states that this paid verification system is a necessary measure to help mitigate the proliferation of fraudulent accounts, a perennial challenge for large social networks. [163]

The contentious verification marker was officially incorporated into a premium tier of Twitter Blue, which was introduced on November 9, 2022, priced at US $7.99 per month. [164] However, this initial rollout was short-lived and fraught with immediate issues. By November 11, 2022, just days after its introduction, the feature led to prominent instances of accounts exploiting the new system to impersonate public figures and established companies. Consequently, Twitter Blue with verification was temporarily suspended. [165] [166] After a period of approximately one month, Twitter Blue was relaunched on December 12, 2022. Notably, for users purchasing the service through the [iOS App Store](/App_Store_(iOS/iPadOS)), the cost was set at a higher rate of$ 10.99 per month, a strategic decision to offset the 30% revenue share typically taken by Apple for in-app purchases. [167]

Initially, Twitter "grandfathered" in users and entities that had previously attained verification status based on their recognition as public figures. These were referred to as "legacy verified accounts" and, in a rather dismissive tone, Twitter noted that they "may or may not be notable." [168] The final nail in the coffin for this old system came on March 25, 2023, with the announcement that "legacy" verification status would be systematically removed. Moving forward, a paid subscription became a prerequisite for retaining verified status, with organizations facing a hefty fee of $1,000 per month (and designated with a distinctive gold verified symbol) [163], plus an additional$ 50 for each "affiliate" account. [169] [170] The implementation of this change, initially slated for April 1, 2023, was met with considerable backlash and criticism, prompting a delay until April 20, 2023. [171] Musk further intensified the perceived stratification of the platform by announcing plans for the "For You" timeline to exclusively prioritize verified accounts and user followers, effective April 15, 2023. He also issued a threat to limit participation in polls solely to verified users, though this particular change has yet to materialize. [172]

Effective April 21, 2023, X implemented a new, stringent requirement for companies wishing to advertise on the platform: participation in the verified organizations program became mandatory. However, a concession was made for high-spending advertisers; companies that commit at least $1,000 per month on advertising automatically receive membership in this program at no additional cost. [163] Further enhancing the perceived value of paid verification, from April 25, 2023, verified users were granted prioritized visibility in replies to posts. [173] [174]

User monetization

In 2021, the company initiated an application process for its premium subscription options, collectively known as "Super Follows." This feature empowered eligible accounts to levy a monthly charge of $2.99,$ 4.99, or $9.99 for exclusive access to their content, allowing creators to directly monetize their audience. [175] However, the initial uptake and revenue generation were rather modest, with the feature reportedly generating only approximately$ 6,000 in its first two weeks. [176] In 2023, the "Super Follows" feature underwent a rebranding, simplifying its name to "subscriptions." This strategic shift in marketing was intended to position the offering as a direct competitor to platforms like Substack, allowing users to publish exclusive long-form posts and videos specifically for their paying subscribers. [177]

In May 2021, Twitter began piloting a "Tip Jar" feature on its iOS and Android clients. This functionality provided a direct avenue for users to send monetary tips to designated accounts, thereby offering a tangible financial incentive for content creators on the platform. The Tip Jar was designed as an optional feature, granting users the autonomy to decide whether or not to enable tips for their own accounts. [178] A significant expansion to this feature was announced on September 23, 2021, when Twitter revealed that it would enable users to tip others on the social network using bitcoin. This cryptocurrency tipping capability was initially made available to iOS users. Prior to this, users could already send tips using traditional fiat currency through established services such as Square's Cash App and PayPal's Venmo. For its bitcoin integration, Twitter opted to leverage the Strike bitcoin lightning wallet service. Notably, at the time of its announcement, Twitter stated it would not take a percentage of any funds transmitted through the tips feature, a decision that likely resonated positively with creators. [179]

On August 27, 2021, Twitter rolled out "Ticketed Spaces," a feature that allowed hosts of Twitter Spaces to monetize their live audio rooms. This enabled creators to charge a fee ranging from $1 to$ 999 for access to their exclusive audio conversations. [180] Further expanding its crypto-centric monetization efforts, in April 2022, Twitter announced a partnership with Stripe, Inc. to pilot cryptocurrency payouts for a limited number of users on the platform. This initiative meant that eligible creators participating in Ticketed Spaces and Super Follows would be able to receive their earnings in the form of USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. Users were also granted the flexibility to hold their earnings directly in crypto wallets and subsequently exchange them for other cryptocurrencies, offering greater financial autonomy. [181]

E-commerce

In July 2021, Twitter commenced testing a "Shop module" specifically for iOS users within the United States. This feature was designed to empower accounts associated with brands to showcase a rotating carousel of product cards directly on their profiles. Unlike earlier "Buy" buttons, where order fulfillment was managed within the Twitter ecosystem, these product cards served as external links, directing users to online storefronts where the products could be directly purchased. [182] Building on the initial success of this pilot, in March 2022, Twitter expanded the test, allowing participating companies to display an impressive array of up to 50 products on their profiles. [183] Further deepening its foray into e-commerce, in November 2021, Twitter introduced support for "shoppable" live streams. This innovation enabled brands to host live streaming events that seamlessly integrated banners and dedicated pages, prominently highlighting products featured within the live presentation, creating a dynamic and interactive shopping experience. [184]

X Money Account

In January 2025, X unveiled ambitious plans to introduce a new financial feature, the "X Money Account," scheduled for launch later that year. [185] [186] This product is envisioned as a comprehensive digital wallet, designed to empower X users with the ability to seamlessly transfer funds between their traditional bank accounts and their digital wallet, as well as to facilitate instant peer-to-peer payments within the platform. [187] Visa was announced as a key partner in this groundbreaking project, lending significant credibility to the endeavor. Notably, at least in its initial phase, the "X Money Account" would not support cryptocurrencies, signaling a focus on traditional financial transactions. [188]

Usage

Main article: Twitter usage

Estimates regarding the platform's daily user count tend to fluctuate, primarily because the company, X (formerly Twitter), has chosen not to publicly release official statistics on its active accounts. A blog entry from Compete.com in February 2009, relying on its own methodology, positioned Twitter as the third most utilized social network, based on its count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits. [48] Fast forward to April 2017, and a statista.com blog entry, using its own data, ranked Twitter as the tenth most used social network, tallying 319 million monthly visitors. [189] The platform's global user base in 2017 was reported to be 328 million. [190] In more recent pronouncements, Elon Musk has provided intermittent updates on user engagement, stating that the platform boasted 500 million monthly active users in March 2023, growing to 550 million in March 2024, and reaching an impressive 600 million by May 2024. [191] [192] [193]

Demographics

See also: Black Twitter

In 2009, Twitter's user base was notably distinct, primarily characterized by older adults who, in many cases, had not previously engaged with other social media platforms prior to Twitter's emergence. [194] Data from comScore at the time indicated that only a modest 11% of Twitter's users fell within the 12 to 17 age bracket, suggesting a less pronounced youth appeal compared to some other platforms. [194] A study conducted by Sysomos in June 2009 revealed a slight gender imbalance, with women constituting a marginally larger Twitter demographic than men—53% versus 47%. The study also highlighted a significant skew in activity, noting that a mere 5% of users were responsible for a disproportionate 75% of all platform activity. [195] According to Quantcast, in September 2009, an estimated 27 million individuals in the U.S. were actively using Twitter. The demographic breakdown further showed that 63% of these users were under 35 years old. In terms of ethnicity, 60% of Twitter users identified as Caucasian, but the platform exhibited a higher-than-average representation (when compared to other internet properties) of African American/Black users (16%) and Hispanic users (11%). Furthermore, 58% of Twitter users reported a total household income of at least US$60,000. [196] The pronounced prevalence of African American Twitter usage and its significant role in many popular hashtags has subsequently become a focal point of various research studies. [197] [198]

Twitter experienced a consistent and substantial expansion of its user base, growing from 100 million monthly active users (MAUs) in September 2011 [199], to 255 million by March 2014 [200], and exceeding 330 million in early 2019. [201] [202] [61] By 2013, the platform boasted over 100 million users actively engaging with the service daily, collectively generating approximately 500 million posts every single day. [203] A 2016 Pew Research Center poll indicated that Twitter was utilized by 24% of all online U.S. adults. The platform demonstrated relatively equal popularity between men and women (24% and 25% of online Americans, respectively), but it resonated more strongly with younger generations, with 36% of 18–29-year-olds being users. [204] A subsequent 2019 survey conducted by the Pew Foundation reaffirmed these trends, finding that Twitter users were three times more likely to be under 50 years old, with the median age of adult U.S. users standing at 40. This survey also underscored the significant role of a small, highly active user segment, revealing that 10% of the most active users on Twitter were responsible for a staggering 80% of all posts. [205]

Content

Content of tweets according to Pear Analytics in August 2009. A fascinating, if slightly depressing, snapshot of early online discourse.

News (3.6%)
Spam (3.8%)
Self-promotion (6%)
Pointless babble (40%)
Conversational (38%)
Pass-along value (8.7%)

The San Antonio-based market-research firm Pear Analytics undertook an analysis of 2,000 posts, originating from the United States and written in English, over a two-week period in August 2009. The data collection occurred between 11:00 am and 5:00 pm (CST). The firm meticulously categorized these posts into six distinct classifications. [206] The largest segment, a substantial 40%, was attributed to "Pointless babble," closely followed by "Conversational" posts at 38%. Content categorized as "Pass-along value" accounted for 9%, while "Self-promotion" made up 6%. Both spam and news-related content each constituted a modest 4% of the total.

Despite Jack Dorsey's own rather dismissive contention that a message on Twitter is merely "a short burst of inconsequential information," the esteemed social networking researcher danah boyd offered a compelling counter-argument to the Pear Analytics survey. Boyd posited that what the Pear researchers pejoratively labeled "pointless babble" is, in fact, more accurately characterized as "social grooming" or a form of "peripheral awareness." She justified this perspective by arguing that individuals inherently "want to know what the people around them are thinking and doing and feeling, even when co-presence isn't viable," highlighting the intrinsic human need for connection and ambient social information. [207] Complementing this view, a separate survey of Twitter users revealed a more specific social expectation: when users share messages that include a hyperlink, there is an implicit expectation of reciprocal linking from their followers, suggesting a dynamic of mutual engagement and content sharing. [208]

Levels of use and class action lawsuit

According to research published in April 2014, a significant portion of user accounts—around 44%—had, at that time, never actually sent a single post. [209] More recently, a 2019 Pew Research Center survey indicated that approximately 22% of Americans reported having used Twitter. [210] Earlier, in 2009, Nielsen Online reported a user-retention rate of 40% for Twitter, suggesting that a considerable number of individuals discontinued their use of the service after roughly one month. This led to the conclusion that the site might, in the long term, only reach about 10% of all Internet users. [211]

Commentators have frequently cautioned against media narratives that portray Twitter as a representative microcosm of the general population, noting how the demographics of Twitter users diverge significantly from those of average Americans. [212] This perspective is further reinforced by observations that only a small fraction of users—specifically 10%—engage actively on the platform, with a staggering 90% of Twitter users having posted no more than twice throughout their account's lifetime. The company itself faced legal challenges stemming from these engagement metrics. In 2016, shareholders initiated a lawsuit against Twitter, alleging that the company had "artificially inflated its stock price by misleading them about user engagement." In a significant development, the company announced on September 20, 2021, that it would pay a substantial $809.5 million to settle this class-action lawsuit, bringing an end to the protracted legal dispute. [213]

Branding

Prior to its controversial rebranding to X, Twitter was instantly recognizable globally by its distinctive and universally beloved bird logo, affectionately known as the Twitter Bird. The platform's original logo, in use from its launch in March 2006, was simply the word "Twitter." This text-based logo was initially accompanied by a rather unassuming image of a bird, which was later discovered to be a piece of generic clip art created by the British graphic designer Simon Oxley. [214] Recognizing the need for a more unique and proprietary emblem, a new logo was commissioned. This redesigned bird was crafted by co-founder Biz Stone with the assistance of designer Philip Pascuzzo, resulting in a more cartoon-like avian figure in 2009. This iteration earned the affectionate nickname "Larry the Bird," a playful homage to Larry Bird of the NBA's legendary Boston Celtics. [214] [215]

Within a mere year, the "Larry the Bird" logo underwent another refinement at the hands of Stone and Pascuzzo. This redesign aimed to strip away the cartoonish elements, leaving behind a clean, solid silhouette of the iconic bird, a version that remained in use from 2010 through 2012. [214] The final evolution of the Twitter Bird, before its eventual retirement, was crafted by Douglas Bowman in 2012. This version further simplified the solid silhouette, rendering it more closely akin to a graceful mountain bluebird. [216] This elegant logo was simply known as the "Twitter Bird" and served as the platform's enduring symbol until July 2023, becoming synonymous with the global discourse it facilitated. [214] [217] [218]

X's profile in August 2025. A stark contrast to the familiar blue bird, a symbol of a platform attempting to shed its past, whether users like it or not.

On July 22, 2023, Elon Musk dramatically announced that the service would undergo a radical rebranding, transforming into "X." [219] This move was explicitly framed as a crucial step in his ambitious pursuit of creating an "everything app," a singular platform encompassing a vast array of functionalities. [218] Almost immediately, Musk's own profile picture on Twitter, along with the platform's official accounts and the icons displayed when browsing or signing up for the service, were updated to reflect the stark new logo. [220] The chosen logo (𝕏) is a rather uninspired Unicode mathematical alphanumeric symbol for the letter "X," styled in a somewhat austere double-strike bold.

The rebranding was met with immediate and widespread criticism. Mike Proulx of The New York Times was particularly scathing, asserting that the brand's established value had been "wiped out" by the abrupt change. [221] Mike Carr echoed this sentiment, suggesting that the new logo conveyed a "'Big Brother' tech overlord vibe," a stark and unappealing contrast to the "cuddly" and approachable nature of the previous bird logo. [221] User dissatisfaction manifested concretely as individuals review bombed the newly rebranded "X" app on the iOS App Store on the very day of its unveiling. Miles Klee of Rolling Stone encapsulated the prevailing sentiment, remarking that the rebrand "reeks of desperation," a sentiment that was difficult to dispute given the chaotic rollout and public reaction. [222] [223]

Logo evolution

2006–2010: The original text-based logo, often paired with Simon Oxley's clip art bird.
2010–2012: The solid silhouette of "Larry the Bird," a more refined and proprietary image.
2012–2023: The simplified "Twitter Bird," a sleek, blue mountain bluebird, iconic for over a decade.
2023–2025: The initial "X" logo, a bold Unicode character.
2025–present: The current "X" logo, which may have undergone further subtle refinements.

Finances

Revenue sources

On April 13, 2010, Twitter announced its strategic foray into paid advertising, unveiling plans to offer "promoted tweets" to companies. This system allowed advertisers to purchase placement for their content, ensuring it would appear in selective search results on the Twitter website, mirroring the highly successful advertising model pioneered by Google Adwords. [224] [225] In a move to diversify its revenue streams, the platform also established that users' photos could generate royalty-free income for Twitter, culminating in an agreement with World Entertainment News Network (WENN) announced in May 2011. [226] These early monetization efforts proved fruitful, with Twitter generating an estimated US$139.5 million in advertising sales during 2011. [227]

In June 2011, Twitter further expanded its advertising offerings by announcing its intention to provide a self-service advertising system tailored specifically for small businesses. [228] This self-service platform officially launched in March 2012, initially on an invite-only basis, to American Express card members and merchants within the U.S. [229] To bolster its advertising campaign and extend its reach, Twitter declared on March 20, 2012, that promoted tweets would soon be introduced to mobile devices, tapping into the rapidly growing mobile user base. [230] By April 2013, Twitter announced a significant expansion: its Twitter Ads self-service platform, which encompassed both promoted tweets and promoted accounts, was made universally available to all U.S. users, eliminating the previous invite-only restriction. [229]

On August 3, 2016, Twitter introduced the "Instant Unlock Card," an innovative feature designed to incentivize user engagement with brands. This new format encouraged individuals to post about a particular brand in exchange for rewards, effectively leveraging the social media network's conversational advertising capabilities. The Instant Unlock Card itself typically consisted of compelling images or videos, accompanied by clear call-to-action buttons and a customizable hashtag, facilitating interactive brand promotion. [231]

Advertising bans

In October 2017, Twitter took a decisive stance against foreign influence operations, announcing a ban on the Russian state-affiliated media outlets RT and Sputnik from purchasing advertising space on its platform. This action was a direct consequence of the conclusions presented in the U.S. national intelligence report from the previous January, which asserted that both Sputnik and RT had been utilized as instruments for Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. [232] In response, Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, vehemently condemned the ban, characterizing it as a "gross violation" of free speech principles by the United States. [233]

In a move that garnered significant attention, in October 2019, Twitter announced its intention to cease running political advertisements on its ad platform, with the policy becoming effective on November 22. This decision was largely prompted by a proliferation of spurious and misleading claims frequently made within political ads. Company CEO Jack Dorsey provided clarification, emphasizing that while internet advertising possessed immense power and proved highly effective for commercial advertisers, this very power introduced significant risks when applied to the realm of politics, where crucial decisions have profound impacts on millions of lives. [234] However, demonstrating the fluid nature of platform policies under new ownership, the company reversed this ban in August 2023. [235] Following this reversal, X published a revised set of criteria governing political advertising, which, while allowing such ads, explicitly prohibited the promotion of false or misleading content. The policy also stipulated that advertisers were solely responsible for complying with all applicable laws. [236]

In April 2022, Twitter announced a ban on "misleading" advertisements that directly contradicted "the scientific consensus on climate change." While the company did not immediately provide a comprehensive set of detailed guidelines, it stated that decisions regarding such advertisements would be made with the assistance of "authoritative sources," explicitly citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a key reference. [237]

Coerced advertising

A revealing article published in The Wall Street Journal in 2025 brought to light concerning practices within X's advertising department. The report alleged that prominent corporations, including Verizon, Ralph Lauren Corporation, and at least four other unnamed companies, had signed advertising contracts with X only after receiving explicit legal threats from Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino. This suggested a highly aggressive, if not coercive, approach to securing advertising revenue. [238]

Fines

Twitter, and subsequently X, has accumulated several financial penalties for its non-compliance with various laws and regulations across different jurisdictions. On May 25, 2022, Twitter was hit with a substantial $150 million fine, levied jointly by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the United States Department of Justice. The penalty stemmed from the company's unauthorized collection of users' contact details and their subsequent misuse for targeted advertising purposes, a clear breach of user trust. [239] [240]

In a more recent development in December 2025, the European Commission imposed a significant fine of €120 million on X. This penalty was for alleged non-compliance with the stringent requirements of the Digital Services Act, a landmark piece of European legislation designed to regulate online platforms. [241] In a rather pointed and immediate retaliation, X responded days later by banning the European Commission from advertising on its platform, effectively cutting off a channel for official communications. [242]

Technology

Implementation

Twitter, now X, has a foundational reliance on open-source software, a common practice in the tech industry that allows for flexibility and scalability. [243] The primary Twitter Web interface, at least in its earlier iterations, was built upon the Ruby on Rails framework [244], deployed on a performance-enhanced Ruby Enterprise Edition implementation of the Ruby programming language. [245] [needs update]

In the nascent stages of Twitter's development, the voluminous stream of incoming posts was managed and stored within MySQL databases. These databases were ingeniously sharded temporally, meaning large data sets were partitioned based on the time of posting. However, as the platform's popularity exploded, the sheer volume of posts quickly overwhelmed this system, leading to significant challenges in both reading from and writing to these databases. It became clear that a fundamental re-engineering of the system was imperative. [246]

From the spring of 2007 until 2008, the crucial task of message handling was managed by Starling, a Ruby-based persistent queue server. [247] However, starting in 2009, Twitter embarked on a gradual but comprehensive migration, progressively replacing its Ruby-based infrastructure with software components meticulously written in Scala. [248] This strategic transition from Ruby to Scala and the JVM yielded dramatic performance improvements for Twitter. The platform experienced an astonishing boost in request handling, soaring from a modest 200 to 300 requests per second per host to an impressive range of approximately 10,000–20,000 requests per second per host. This improvement far exceeded the 10x enhancement that Twitter's engineers had initially envisioned when they embarked on the architectural shift. The ongoing evolution of Twitter's development has also involved a significant architectural pivot: moving away from a monolithic development approach, where a single, large application was built, towards a more modular architecture where distinct services are developed independently and seamlessly integrated through remote procedure calls. [246]

As of April 6, 2011, Twitter's engineering team officially confirmed a pivotal infrastructure change: they had successfully transitioned away from their traditional Ruby on Rails search stack to a new Java server, which they internally dubbed "Blender." [249] The intricate process of handling a post involves several sophisticated steps. Each individual post is meticulously registered under a unique identifier known as a snowflake, ensuring distinctiveness. Geolocation data, if available, is then appended using a specialized service called 'Rockdove.' The platform's proprietary URL shortener, t.co, plays a crucial role by first scanning for any potential spam links before efficiently shortening the URL. Subsequently, the posts are securely stored in a MySQL database, managed through the Gizzard framework, and the user receives an immediate acknowledgment confirming that their message has been successfully sent. Finally, these posts are then disseminated to search engines via the Firehose API. This entire, complex process is efficiently managed by FlockDB and, remarkably, takes an average of just 350 milliseconds to complete. [243]

On August 16, 2013, Raffi Krikorian, who served as Twitter's vice president of platform engineering at the time, proudly shared in a blog post that the company's infrastructure had successfully managed an unprecedented volume of activity during that week, processing almost 143,000 posts per second, thereby establishing a new operational record. Krikorian elaborated that Twitter achieved this remarkable feat by ingeniously integrating and leveraging a combination of its own internally developed technologies and widely adopted open-source solutions, showcasing a pragmatic approach to scaling. [246] [250]

API and developer platform

Twitter, in its heyday, was widely lauded for possessing one of the most open and robust developer APIs among major technology companies, a testament to its early commitment to fostering an external ecosystem. [251] The service's API (Application Programming Interface) provided a crucial gateway, allowing other web services and applications to seamlessly integrate with Twitter's core functionalities. [252] Developer interest in Twitter was immediate and intense, burgeoning rapidly after its initial launch, which prompted the company to release the first iteration of its public API in September 2006. [253] This API quickly achieved iconic status, serving as a canonical reference implementation for public REST APIs and becoming a widely cited example in numerous programming tutorials and educational materials. [254]

From its inception in 2006 through 2010, Twitter's developer platform flourished, enjoying strong growth and a highly favorable reputation within the tech community. Developers eagerly built upon the public API, creating innovative solutions that included the very first Twitter mobile phone clients as well as the pioneering URL shortener services. However, the period between 2010 and 2012 marked a significant turning point, characterized by a series of decisions made by Twitter that were met with considerable disapproval from the once-supportive developer community. [255] In 2010, Twitter issued a mandate requiring all developers to adopt OAuth authentication, providing a remarkably short notice period of just 9 weeks. [256] Later that same year, in a move widely perceived as directly competitive, Twitter launched its own URL shortener, stepping into a space already occupied by some of its most well-known third-party developers. [257] The culmination of these tensions arrived in 2012, when Twitter introduced stricter usage limits for its API, a change that was described by some as "completely crippling" for certain developers who relied heavily on the platform's data access. [258] [259] While these strategic shifts undeniably enhanced the stability and security of the Twitter service, they were broadly interpreted as hostile gestures towards the developer community, leading to a significant erosion of trust in the platform. [260]

In July 2020, Twitter made a concerted effort to mend fences and revitalize its developer relations by releasing version 2.0 of its public API [261]. Further demonstrating a renewed commitment to its developer ecosystem, the company began showcasing applications created by third-party developers on its dedicated "Twitter Toolbox" section in April 2022. [262]

However, this period of renewed openness proved to be short-lived. In January 2023, X (then still Twitter) abruptly terminated third-party access to its APIs, a decision that effectively forced all third-party Twitter clients to cease operations. [263] This move ignited a firestorm of controversy within the developer community, particularly because many of these third-party applications had predated the company's own official apps, having served users for years. Compounding the frustration was the fact that this significant policy change was implemented without any prior announcement or warning. Sean Heber of Twitterrific, a popular and long-standing third-party client, confirmed the app's discontinuation in a poignant blog post, stating, "We are sorry to say that the app's sudden and undignified demise is due to an unannounced and undocumented policy change by an increasingly capricious Twitter – a Twitter that we no longer recognize as trustworthy nor want to work with any longer." [264] In February 2023, Twitter further solidified its new approach by announcing the end of free access to its API, instead opting to offer paid tier plans with significantly more limited access, effectively monetizing what was once a largely open resource. [265]

Innovator's patent agreement

On April 17, 2012, Twitter announced its intention to implement an "Innovators Patent Agreement" (IPA). This groundbreaking agreement would legally obligate Twitter to utilize its intellectual property, specifically its patents, solely for defensive purposes. [clarify] [266] The intent was to protect innovators rather than to stifle competition through aggressive patent litigation.

Open source

Twitter, throughout its operational history, has demonstrated a consistent commitment to both leveraging and contributing to open-source software while simultaneously navigating and overcoming the intricate technical challenges inherent in delivering its service. [267] A dedicated page within their developer documentation serves as a testament to this philosophy, extending gratitude to dozens of open-source projects that have been instrumental in their infrastructure, ranging from essential revision control software like Git to foundational programming languages such as Ruby and Scala. [268]

Beyond consumption, Twitter has also been a significant contributor to the open-source ecosystem. Software components that the company has generously released as open source include the Gizzard Scala framework, a powerful tool designed for the creation of distributed datastores; FlockDB, a distributed graph database; the Finagle library, invaluable for building asynchronous RPC servers and clients; the TwUI user interface framework, tailored specifically for iOS; and Bower, a popular client-side package manager. [269] Notably, the widely adopted Bootstrap frontend framework, a cornerstone of modern web development, also originated at Twitter and remains one of the top 10 most popular repositories on GitHub. [270]

In a move championed by Elon Musk and hailed as a new era of transparency, on March 31, 2023, Twitter released the source code for its recommendation algorithm to GitHub. This algorithm is the intricate system that dictates which posts appear on a user's personalized timeline. [271] The company's blog post accompanying the release declared, "We believe that we have a responsibility, as the town square of the internet, to make our platform transparent. So today we are taking the first step in a new era of transparency and opening much of our source code to the global community." [272] Musk, who was CEO at the time, had been publicly promising this move for some time. As early as March 24, 2022, even before his acquisition of the site, he had polled his followers on whether Twitter's algorithm should be open source, with approximately 83% responding affirmatively. He had initially promised its release within a week in February, before pushing back the deadline to March 31. [273] This gesture, however, was somewhat overshadowed by a security incident in March 2023, where Twitter suffered an attack that resulted in proprietary code being leaked. Twitter subsequently acted to have the leaked source code removed. [274]

Interface

Twitter embarked on its first significant overhaul of its user interface in September 2010, adopting a dual-pane layout that featured a prominent navigation bar positioned along the top of the screen. This redesign also placed an increased emphasis on the inline embedding of multimedia content, aiming for a richer, more integrated user experience. Critics at the time largely interpreted this redesign as a deliberate attempt to emulate features and experiences already familiar from popular mobile applications and various third-party Twitter clients. [275] [276] [277] [278]

The new layout underwent further revision in 2011, with a primary focus on establishing greater continuity across the web and mobile versions of the platform. This update introduced dedicated "Connect" and "Discover" tabs: "Connect" was designed to highlight interactions with other users, such as replies, while "Discover" provided access to additional information regarding trending topics and breaking news headlines. The redesign also featured an updated profile layout and, notably, shifted all primary content to the right pane, dedicating the left pane to core functions and the list of trending topics. [279] In a significant expansion of its global reach, Twitter became available in Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, and Urdu in March 2012, marking the platform's first ventures into right-to-left language versions of the site. [280] As of 2023, the Twitter website officially listed support for 34 languages on Twitter.com, underscoring its commitment to international accessibility. [281]

In September 2012, a revamped layout for user profiles was unveiled, introducing larger "covers" that could be customized with a unique header image. This update also prominently displayed a user's recently posted photos, offering a more visually rich profile experience. [282] The "Discover" tab, originally introduced in 2011, was eventually discontinued in April 2015 [283]. Its functionality was largely succeeded on the mobile application by an "Explore" tab, which consolidated trending topics and curated Moments, providing a more cohesive discovery experience. [284] In September 2018, Twitter began a gradual migration of selected web users to its progressive web app (PWA), an experience based on its Twitter Lite mobile web offering. This transition resulted in a streamlined interface, reduced to a two-column layout. The migration to this iteration of Twitter accelerated in April 2019, with some users receiving it with a slightly modified layout, signaling a broader rollout. [285] [286]

In July 2019, Twitter officially released this comprehensive redesign, making it the default experience with no further option to opt-out while logged in. This iteration was meticulously engineered to further unify Twitter's user experience across its web and mobile application versions. It adopted a three-column layout, featuring a prominent sidebar that provided quick links to common areas (including the "Explore" section, which had been merged with the search page). Profile elements, such as the user's picture, header images, and biography text, were integrated into the same column as the timeline, creating a more cohesive visual flow. Additionally, features previously exclusive to the mobile version, such as multi-account support and an opt-out for the "top tweets" mode on the timeline, were incorporated into the desktop experience. [287] [288]

Security

In direct response to a series of early security breaches that compromised Twitter accounts, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated charges against the service. These charges were formally settled on June 24, 2010. This landmark action marked the very first instance of the FTC taking enforcement measures against a social network specifically for security lapses. The terms of the settlement imposed stringent requirements on Twitter, obligating the company to implement a comprehensive information security program and to submit to independent biannual audits of this program for a period of 10 years, ensuring sustained vigilance. [289] Following a number of high-profile hacks targeting official accounts, including those of the Associated Press and The Guardian [290], Twitter responded in April 2013 by announcing the introduction of a two-factor login verification system, an essential added measure designed to fortify user accounts against hacking attempts. [291]

On July 15, 2020, Twitter was rocked by a major hack that compromised 130 high-profile accounts, affecting both verified and unverified profiles, including those of prominent figures such as Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk. The sophisticated attack allowed bitcoin scammers to leverage the compromised accounts to send fraudulent posts, instructing followers to send bitcoin to a specified public address with the promise of doubling their money. [292] Within a matter of hours, Twitter took drastic measures, temporarily disabling the ability to post and resetting passwords for all verified accounts to contain the breach. [292] Subsequent analysis of the incident revealed that the scammers had employed social engineering tactics to obtain credentials from Twitter employees, granting them access to an internal administration tool. This tool, typically used by Twitter staff to view and modify personal details of these accounts, provided the attackers with the necessary leverage to execute what was described as a "smash and grab" operation, aiming to quickly amass funds. An estimated US$120,000 in bitcoin was deposited into various accounts before Twitter successfully intervened to halt the scheme. [293] Several law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, promptly launched investigations into the audacious attack. [294]

On August 5, 2022, Twitter publicly disclosed a significant security flaw: a bug, inadvertently introduced in a June 2021 update to the service, had allowed malicious actors to link users' email addresses and phone numbers to their Twitter accounts. [295] [296] The vulnerability had initially been reported through Twitter's bug bounty program in January 2022 and was subsequently fixed. While Twitter initially believed that no one had exploited the flaw, it was later revealed that a user on the notorious online hacking forum Breach Forums had indeed leveraged the vulnerability to compile a list containing over 5.4 million user profiles. This individual then offered to sell the compiled data for $30,000. [297] [298] The information harvested by the hacker included sensitive details such as users' screen names, approximate locations, and email addresses, which could potentially be weaponized in phishing attacks or used to de-anonymize accounts operating under pseudonyms, posing a significant privacy risk.

Outages

During periods of system instability or overload, Twitter users were, at one point, famously greeted with the "fail whale" error message image. This iconic illustration, created by artist Yiying Lu [299], depicted eight cheerful orange birds collaboratively using a net to hoist a large whale from the ocean, accompanied by the caption: "Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again." [300] The evocative term "fail whale" itself was first coined by web designer and early Twitter user Jen Simmons in a September 2007 post, quickly entering the platform's lexicon. [301] [302] However, in a November 2013 Wired interview, Chris Fry, then Twitter's VP of Engineering, noted that the company had phased out the "fail whale" as the platform's infrastructure had achieved a much greater degree of stability and reliability. [303] In its early years, Twitter experienced considerable downtime; the platform maintained approximately 98% uptime in 2007, which translated to roughly six full days of service unavailability. [304] These periods of downtime were particularly conspicuous and frustrating during major events popular with the technology industry, such as the highly anticipated 2008 Macworld Conference & Expo keynote address, when user traffic surged. [305] [306]

User accounts

Verified accounts

Main article: Twitter verification

In June 2009, following a wave of criticism from public figures like Kanye West and a lawsuit initiated by baseball manager Tony La Russa over unauthorized accounts operated by impersonators, Twitter launched its "Verified Accounts" program. [307] [308] The company clarified that an account adorned with a distinctive "blue tick" verification badge signified that "we've been in contact with the person or entity the account is representing and verified that it is approved." [309] In a move to democratize access to this status, in July 2016, Twitter announced a public application process, allowing individuals to apply for verified status "if it is determined to be of public interest," explicitly stating that verification "does not imply an endorsement." [310] [311] [312] This verified status granted users access to certain exclusive features unavailable to standard accounts, such as the ability to filter mentions to only see those from other verified accounts. [313]

In November 2020, Twitter signaled a significant overhaul of its verification system, announcing a relaunch planned for 2021. Under the proposed new policy, Twitter intended to verify six distinct categories of accounts. For three of these categories—companies, brands, and influential individuals such as activists—the existence of a Wikipedia page would serve as a key criterion for demonstrating "Off Twitter Notability." [314] Twitter stated its intention to re-open public verification applications at some point in "early 2021." [315]

However, the trajectory of verification fundamentally shifted following the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk in October 2022. Reports quickly emerged indicating that verification would instead be bundled with the paid Twitter Blue service, and, controversially, existing verified accounts would lose their status if they did not subscribe. [316] On November 1, Musk himself confirmed that verification would indeed be integrated into Twitter Blue in the future, dismissively characterizing the existing verification system as a "lords & peasants system." [159] [160] [161] Following immediate and widespread concerns over the potential for rampant impersonation, Twitter swiftly re-implemented a secondary "Official" marker. This new designation consisted of a grey tick accompanied by "Official" text displayed beneath the username, specifically for high-profile accounts belonging to "government and commercial entities." [317] [318] In December 2022, the "Official" text was further refined and replaced by a gold checkmark for organizations, while government and multilateral accounts were designated with a distinct grey check mark, creating a multi-tiered verification system. [319] [320]

In March 2023, the gold check mark, symbolizing organizational verification, was made available for purchase by organizations through the "Verified Organizations" program (which was previously known as Twitter Blue for Business). [319] [320] This solidified the shift towards a paid, tiered verification model.

Privacy

While posts on X (formerly Twitter) are, by their very nature, public by default, users retain the option to engage in private communication through "direct messages." [321] Information regarding who an account has chosen to follow and who has chosen to follow that account is also generally public. However, users can opt to change their account settings to "protected," which then restricts this information (along with all their posts) to only those followers who have been explicitly approved. [322]

Twitter, Inc., in its prior incarnation, openly stated its practice of collecting personally identifiable information about its users and sharing it with third parties, as explicitly detailed in its privacy policy. The service also reserved the right to sell this collected information as an asset should the company change ownership. [323] [non-primary source needed] [324] Advertisers on the platform were able to target users based on their historical posting activity and, notably, were permitted to quote user posts directly in advertisements [325] specifically tailored and directed to that user.

Twitter launched the beta version of its "Verified Accounts" service on June 11, 2009, offering individuals with public profiles a mechanism to officially confirm their account name. The profile pages of these authenticated accounts prominently displayed a badge, serving as a visual indicator of their verified status. [326] In a significant legal development, on December 14, 2010, the United States Department of Justice issued a subpoena directly instructing Twitter to furnish information pertaining to accounts registered to or associated with WikiLeaks. [327] Twitter, in a commendable stance on user privacy, opted to notify its affected users, stating, "... it's our policy to notify users about law enforcement and governmental requests for their information, unless we are prevented by law from doing so." [321]

In May 2011, a claimant identified only as "CTB" initiated legal action against Twitter Inc. at the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. [328] The lawsuit sought to compel the company to disclose the details of specific account holders. This legal challenge arose in the wake of widespread gossip posted on Twitter concerning the private life of professional footballer Ryan Giggs. The case quickly escalated into what became known as the 2011 British privacy injunctions controversy, highlighting the complexities of "super-injunctions" in the digital age. [329] Tony Wang, who was the head of Twitter in Europe at the time, made a public statement indicating that individuals who engaged in "bad things" on the site would be required to defend themselves under the laws of their respective jurisdictions if controversies arose. He affirmed that the site would cooperate and provide user information to authorities when legally mandated to do so. [330] He further suggested that Twitter would comply with a UK court order to divulge the names of users responsible for "illegal activity" on the platform. [331]

Twitter strategically acquired Dasient, a startup specializing in malware protection for businesses, in January 2012. The company announced its intention to integrate Dasient's technology to more effectively identify and remove malicious advertisers from the platform. [332] Twitter also introduced a feature that permitted the selective removal of posts by country, a departure from its previous policy where deleted posts were removed globally. [333] [334] The inaugural application of this new policy occurred on October 18, 2012, when Twitter blocked access to the account of the German neo-Nazi group Besseres Hannover within Germany. [335] The policy was invoked again the very next day to remove anti-Semitic French posts bearing the hashtag #unbonjuif ("a good Jew"). [336] Following the widespread sharing of graphic images depicting the killing of American journalist James Foley in 2014, Twitter announced a new, more sensitive policy: in certain cases, it would delete pictures of individuals who had died, provided requests were made by family members or "authorized individuals." [337] [338]

In 2015, in a significant restructuring of its legal and privacy framework, Twitter implemented updated terms of service and a revised privacy policy. As a result, Twitter users residing outside the United States were legally served by the Ireland-based Twitter International Company, rather than Twitter, Inc. This change effectively made these users subject to the more robust Irish and European Union data protection laws, offering them enhanced privacy protections. [339] However, on April 8, 2020, Twitter announced a more restrictive policy: users outside of the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom (and thus not subject to GDPR) would no longer be permitted to opt out of sharing "mobile app advertising measurements" with Twitter's third-party partners. [340]

On October 9, 2020, Twitter implemented additional measures designed to counter misleading campaigns in the run-up to the 2020 U.S. Election. A new, temporary update encouraged users to "add their own commentary" before reposting a post, by making the 'quoting tweet' feature mandatory instead of optional. The social network giant's stated aim was to generate greater context and foster the circulation of more thoughtful content. [341] However, after observing limited effectiveness, the company concluded this experiment in December 2020, reverting to the optional quote post feature. [342]

On May 25, 2022, Twitter incurred a substantial $150 million fine for its practice of collecting users' phone numbers and email addresses—originally provided for security purposes—and subsequently exploiting them for targeted advertising. The company was also mandated to notify its affected users and was explicitly banned from profiting from "deceptively collected data." [343] The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice jointly asserted that Twitter had violated a 2011 agreement which specifically prohibited the use of personal security data for targeted advertising.

In September 2024, the FTC released a comprehensive report summarizing the responses of nine companies (including X) to orders issued by the agency under Section 6(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. These orders demanded information regarding their data collection practices, encompassing both users and non-users (including children and teenagers), and the subsequent utilization of this data. The report's findings were damning, concluding that the companies' data practices, both for users and non-users, rendered individuals vulnerable to a litany of harms, including identity theft, stalking, unlawful discrimination, emotional distress and mental health issues, social stigma, and severe reputational harm. [344] [345] [346]

Harassment

In August 2013, Twitter, responding to widespread public outcry, including a petition that amassed 100,000 signatures, announced plans to introduce a universally accessible "report abuse" button across all versions of its site. This initiative was directly prompted by a series of egregious posts that included rape and death threats directed at prominent figures such as historian Mary Beard, feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez, and Member of Parliament Stella Creasy. [347] [348] [349] Twitter subsequently unveiled new, more comprehensive reporting and blocking policies in December 2014 [350] [351] [352] [353]. Notably, these included a blocking mechanism specifically devised by Randi Harper, who herself had been a prominent target of the GamerGate harassment campaign. [354] [355] [356] In a candid admission in February 2015, then-CEO Dick Costolo stated he was 'frankly ashamed' at the company's demonstrable inadequacy in addressing trolling and abuse on the platform, acknowledging that Twitter had, as a direct consequence, lost users. [357] A research study conducted by IT for Change in 2022, focusing on abuse and misogynistic trolling directed at Indian women in public-political life on Twitter, revealed a disturbing pattern: women perceived as ideologically left-leaning, dissenters, Muslim women, and political commentators or women from opposition parties received a disproportionate volume of abusive and hateful messages. [358]

In 2016, Twitter announced the formation of the Twitter Trust & Safety Council, an initiative designed to help "ensure that people feel safe expressing themselves on Twitter." The inaugural members of this council comprised 50 diverse organizations and individuals. [359] However, the announcement of Twitter's "Trust & Safety Council" was immediately met with considerable objection and skepticism from segments of its user base. [360] [361] Critics argued that the member organizations appeared heavily biased towards "the restriction of hate speech." A Reason article, in particular, voiced concern that "there's not a single uncompromising anti-censorship figure or group on the list," suggesting a lack of ideological balance. [362] [363]

Twitter took decisive action against the QAnon conspiracy theory on July 21, 2020, banning a significant 7,000 accounts and imposing limitations on an additional 150,000 that were identified as having ties to the movement. These bans and limitations were enacted after QAnon-related accounts began systematically harassing other users through practices of "swarming" or "brigading"—coordinated attacks launched by multiple accounts—in the weeks leading up to the crackdown. Accounts subjected to limitations by Twitter would no longer appear in search results nor be promoted in other Twitter functions. The company affirmed its commitment to ongoing enforcement, with its support account stating, "We will permanently suspend accounts Tweeting about these topics that we know are engaged in violations of our multi-account policy, coordinating abuse around individual victims, or are attempting to evade a previous suspension." [364]

In September 2021, Twitter began beta testing a new feature called "Safety Mode." [365] This functionality was designed to mitigate unwelcome interactions through the automated detection of negative engagements. If a user activated Safety Mode, the authors of posts identified by Twitter's underlying technology as being harmful or exhibiting uninvited behavior would be temporarily prevented from following the account, sending direct messages, or viewing posts from the user who had enabled the feature during the temporary block period. [366] Jarrod Doherty, a senior product manager at Twitter, clarified that the technology embedded within Safety Mode was engineered to assess existing relationships, thereby preventing the blocking of accounts with whom the user frequently interacts. [365]

Suspect and contested accounts

See also: Twitter suspensions

In January 2016, Twitter faced a civil lawsuit filed by the widow of a U.S. man killed in the 2015 Amman shooting attack. The lawsuit alleged that by allowing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to continually utilize its platform, particularly its direct messaging feature [367], Twitter was effectively providing material support to a terrorist organization, an act deemed illegal under U.S. federal law. Twitter vehemently disputed the claim, asserting that "violent threats and the promotion of terrorism deserve no place on Twitter and, like other social networks, our rules make that clear." [368] [369] The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, a decision that upheld the crucial Section 230 safe harbor provision, which dictates that operators of interactive computer services are not liable for content published by their users. [369] [370] The lawsuit was subsequently revised in August 2016, with the plaintiffs attempting to draw comparisons between Twitter and other telecommunications devices, arguing for a different legal interpretation. [367] However, the second amended complaint was also dismissed by the district court, a decision that was further affirmed on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on January 31, 2018. [371]

Twitter sparked considerable controversy and raised questions regarding its commitment to freedom of speech in May 2016 when it suspended multiple parody accounts that satirized Russian politics. This action led to widespread protests and prompted renewed scrutiny of the company's content moderation policies. [372] Following significant public outcry, Twitter reinstated the accounts the very next day, though notably without offering a clear explanation for their initial suspension. [373] On the same day, Twitter, in conjunction with Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, jointly agreed to a European Union code of conduct. This agreement legally obligated the companies to review the "majority of valid notifications for removal of illegal

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