Twitter goes live with microblog politics
Event Not yet reviewed This page has not yet been through the automated review pipeline.Twitter's public launch establishes a lightweight broadcast network where activists, journalists, and campaigns experiment with rapid-fire messaging, hashtag organizing, and real-time newsmaking.
The first message is sent on 21 March 2006 and the service is released publicly in July 2006 as an SMS group-send tool; its short status updates and SMS bridge make it a favored tool for on-the-ground reporting without a laptop.
Its open API and, from 2007, hashtag conventions later seed new tactics—from #DontGo and #TCOT to Arab Spring solidarity campaigns—that teach partisans how to swarm narratives and pressure institutions in real time.
Sources
- 01.
Twitter. just setting up my twttr. (2006). The first message sent on the service, timestamped 21 March 2006, which fixes the date used here.
- 02.
Arrington, M. (2006). Odeo Releases Twttr. TechCrunch. Contemporaneous account of the 15 July 2006 public release, describing Twttr as an SMS group-send service with public per-user message pages.
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