Twitter

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

X
Logo used since 2023[a]
X homepage visited while logged out in November 2024
FormerlyTwitter (2006–2023)
Type of site
Social networking service
Available inMultilingual
FoundedMarch 21, 2006; 18 years ago (2006-03-21), in San Francisco, California, U.S.
Area servedWorldwide, except blocking countries
Owner
Founder(s)
ChairmanElon Musk
CEOLinda Yaccarino
URLx.com
RegistrationRequired[b]
LaunchedJuly 15, 2006; 18 years ago (2006-07-15)
Current statusActive
Native client(s) on
Written in

Twitter, officially known as X since July 2023, is a social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites.[3][4] Users can share short text messages, images, and videos in short posts commonly known as "tweets" or "retweets" (officially "post" or "repost") and like other users' content.[5] The platform also includes direct messaging, video and audio calling, bookmarks, lists, communities, a chatbot (Grok), job search,[6] and Spaces, a social audio feature. Users can vote on context added by approved users using the Community Notes feature.

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, and was launched in July of that year. Twitter grew quickly; by 2012 more than 100 million users produced 340 million tweets per day.[7] Twitter, Inc., was based in San Francisco, California, and had more than 25 offices around the world.[8] A signature characteristic of the service initially was that posts were required to be brief. Posts were initially limited to 140 characters, which was changed to 280 characters in 2017. The limitation was removed for subscribed accounts in 2023.[9] The majority of tweets are produced by a minority of users.[10][11] In 2020, it was estimated that approximately 48 million accounts (15% of all accounts) were run by internet bots rather than humans.[12]

The service is owned by the American company X Corp., which was established to succeed the prior owner Twitter, Inc. in March 2023 following the October 2022 acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk for US$44 billion. Musk stated that his goal with the acquisition was to promote free speech on the platform. Since his acquisition, the platform has been criticized for enabling the increased spread of disinformation[13][14][15] and hate speech.[16][17][18] Linda Yaccarino succeeded Musk as CEO on June 5, 2023, with Musk remaining as the chairman and the chief technology officer.[19][20][21] In July 2023, Musk announced that Twitter would be rebranded to "X" and the bird logo would be retired,[22][23] a process which was completed by May 2024. Since Musk's takeover, data from app-tracking firms has shown that global usage of Twitter has declined by approximately 15%, compared to a decline of 5–10% in some other social media sites.[24][25][26] The platform has disputed that usage has dropped at all, with Musk saying that membership had grown to 600 million users as of a May 2024 tweet.[27] By October 2024, the platform was estimated to have lost about 80 percent of its value since Musk acquired it.[28]

  1. ^ Ashworth, Louis (July 24, 2023). "The logo of X, formerly Twitter, wasn't actually stolen". Financial Times. Archived from the original on July 24, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  2. ^ Musk, Elon Reeve [@elonmusk] (July 24, 2023). "𝕏" (Tweet). Retrieved July 30, 2023 – via Twitter.
  3. ^ Kolodny, Lora (September 18, 2023). "Elon Musk says Twitter, now X, is moving to monthly subscription fees and has 550 million users". CNBC. Archived from the original on September 18, 2023. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
  4. ^ "Top Websites Ranking". Similarweb. Archived from the original on February 10, 2022. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  5. ^ Conger, Kate (August 3, 2023). "So What Do We Call Twitter Now Anyway?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 12, 2023. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  6. ^ "X, formerly Twitter, opens job search function to all users". HR Dive. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
  7. ^ "Twitter turns six". March 21, 2012. Archived from the original on February 6, 2017. Retrieved August 29, 2014 – via Twitter.
  8. ^ "Company: "About Twitter"". Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Twitter_500 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Carlson, Nicholas (June 2, 2009). "Stunning New Numbers on Who Uses Twitter". Business Insider. Archived from the original on February 5, 2021. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  11. ^ Wojcik, Stefan; Hughes, Adam (April 24, 2019). "Sizing Up Twitter Users". Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on October 29, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rodriguez was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Milmo, Dan (October 9, 2023). "X criticised for enabling spread of Israel-Hamas disinformation". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on October 10, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  14. ^ Goswami, Rohan (October 9, 2023). "X, formerly Twitter, amplifies disinformation amid the Israel-Hamas conflict". CNBC. Archived from the original on October 9, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  15. ^ Lyngaas, Sean; O'Sullivan, Donie; Duffy, Clare (October 9, 2023). "Elon Musk's X adds to fog of war at outset of Israel-Hamas conflict". CNN. Archived from the original on October 10, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  16. ^ Sato, Mia (December 2, 2022). "Hate speech is soaring on Twitter under Elon Musk, report finds". The Verge. Archived from the original on March 19, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  17. ^ "New Data Suggests that Hate Speech is on the Rise on Twitter 2.0". Social Media Today. Archived from the original on September 25, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  18. ^ Frenkel, Sheera; Conger, Kate (December 2, 2022). "Hate Speech's Rise on Twitter Is Unprecedented, Researchers Find". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 16, 2023. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
  19. ^ Frier, Sarah (June 5, 2023). "Twitter's New CEO Linda Yaccarino Has First Day in the Role". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on November 8, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  20. ^ Miller, Monica (December 21, 2022). "Elon Musk to quit as Twitter CEO when replacement found". BBC News. Archived from the original on March 17, 2023. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  21. ^ "Twitter's New CEO Linda Yaccarino Has First Day in the Role". Bloomberg.com. June 6, 2023. Archived from the original on June 26, 2023. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
  22. ^ Valinsky, Jordan (July 24, 2023). "Twitter X logo: Elon Musk rebrands social media platform". CNN Business. Archived from the original on October 3, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  23. ^ "Elon Musk reveals rebranding of Twitter as X – and what he wants us to now call a tweet". Sky News. Archived from the original on August 1, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  24. ^ Hern, Alex (March 26, 2024). "Twitter usage in US 'fallen by a fifth' since Elon Musk's takeover". The Guardian. Archived from the original on March 27, 2024. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  25. ^ Fischer, Sara (October 26, 2023). "X usage plummets in Musk's first year". Axios. Archived from the original on October 27, 2023. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  26. ^ Kantrowitz, Alex (October 23, 2023). "The Elon Effect". Slate. Archived from the original on May 6, 2024. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference smt-600m was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ "Elon Musk's X is worth nearly 80% less than when he bought it, Fidelity estimates". CNN. Retrieved October 23, 2024.


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