Is he twitter anniversary! Among all social networks, the reference in microblogging he turns 15 this sunday. Tweets, retweets, hashtags, trending topics… en esta decade and a half of Twitter, we have enriched our language and learned to synthesize our digital messages. While in other social networks we entertain ourselves, Twitter’s strength is real time, immediacy, the content live and fast. We use Twitter to be aware of what is most talked about at all times, to inform us, to debate, polemicize and turn issues, television programs or publications of all kinds into viral.
But let’s look back. How it all started? It was March 21, 2006, the day that Twitter started: Jack Dorsey, one of its founders, published the one that was the first tweet ever, which we rescued on this Twitter anniversary.
From that March 21 to today, in its 15 years, the death of Twitter has been predicted on numerous occasions but the truth is that it has not stopped growing, and although its progress has been slower than for other social networks, it is still there and it holds.
In figures, Twitter has more than 330 million monthly active users and already exceeds 192 million daily users. Twitter users have an average of 707 followers, and on the network about half a million tweets per minute; this supposes that they are more than 600 million tweets per day those that are moving in 2021, triple those that were shipped in 2011!
To frame. The most viral and relevant tweets of Twitter’s 15 years
Taking advantage of the anniversary of Twitter, we can remember moments and viral tweets that marked a milestone in this social network. For example, one of the first topics that went viral on Twitter was the death of Michael Jackson. On June 25, 2009, when the death of the King of Pop was revealed, about 500 tweets were generated on Twitter per second.
Another famous event on the net was the message of the electoral victory of Barack Obama. It garnered more than 800,000 retweets, making it the most retweeted tweet in Twitter history to date. Of course, it was the most relevant tweet of 2012 on this social network.
In this particular podium that we recover for the anniversary of Twitter is also the American singer Katy Perry; she was the first person to reach 100 million followers on Twitter, but currently who has the largest community is Obama, with no more and no less than 130 million followers!
If we look at the most viral hashtags on Twitter, the record goes to K-Pop music fans. Guinness like hashtag most used in 24 hours is #TwitterBestFandom, used in more than 60 million tweets in a single day. The label was used by fans of music of that style while voting for awards.
Controversies and accounts closed by Twitter
If something also characterizes Twitter, it is controversy, it is rare the day that some debate is not heated. We have seen discussions of all kinds in these 15 years: religion, sports, television content, sexuality or politics have sparked controversy on the Internet.
As long as the debate is healthy, everything is going well, but the policies of use of Twitter are rigorous, and the network is strict when the behaviors are far from the value of a safe conversation. Spam practices, abusive behavior, threats and defamations, false news or accounts, identity theft, infringement of intellectual property rights or sensitive content are reasons for the suspension of an account on Twitter.
The closing of a more recent and also media account on Twitter was the case of Donald Trump. Three days after the assault on the Capitol, and due to his tweets about that fact, the outgoing president of the United States was kicked off Twitter for incitement to violence. It had more than 80 million followers when the account was suspended by Twitter.
Also in the political sphere but already in our country, we have seen on several occasions the suspension of the Vox Twitter account, or how the network has detected and closed fake accounts and bots linked to political parties, for operating in a supposedly malicious way to manipulate public opinion.
However, beyond this Twitter anniversary, there is an ever-latent question about freedom of expression: Who determines what can be said on social media? The debate continues on Twitter, and may it be for many more years. Happy Birthday Twitter!
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