Everything about tweets, trends and login to the social media platform

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Created: 10/18/2022 3:16 p.m

Justin Bieber has it, former US President Trump is no longer allowed: all the facts about the billionaire company Twitter, which influences opinions around the world

Hamburg – It started as a brainstorm within the podcast company “Odeo”: Twitter is now the largest social network after Facebook and Instagram. In early 2006, programmer and entrepreneur Jack Dorsey proposed creating a platform for status messages to be sent to his team members via SMS. Twitter was born – or rather “Twttr”, because that was the name of the software in the beginning.

Twitter: Almost a quarter of a billion users

Today, more than 200 million people use the portal that Jack Dorsey founded in autumn 2007 together with his business partners Biz Stone and Evan Williams as his own company under the name “Twitter, Inc.”. In addition to pop stars Justin Bieber and Katy Perry, the political icon Barack Obama is one of the best-known users of the short message service. Twitter is controversial as a platform for political opinion-making: Former US President Donald Trump, among others, often used his tweets to spread misinformation. His account was suspended towards the end of the 2020 US election campaign.

Twitter: facts and figures

These are the metrics of Twitter in brief:

(Sources: twitter.com and thesocialshepherd.com, as of October 2022)

What is Twitter and who is it for?

The software is a microblogging platform on which you can keep a mostly public diary. The posts have a maximum length: 280 characters, at the beginning it was only 140 – that is the maximum length of an SMS. Tweets are often comments on daily politics or current events, which in turn are picked up and commented on by other users. Accordingly, Twitter is particularly suitable for people who like to participate in public debates, network and connect with other people.

Twitter differs from other social networks precisely in its focus on short posts: in contrast to Facebook and Instagram, the direct exchange with other users* via messages and the staging of one’s own profile through photos is rather secondary.

How much does Twitter cost?

Good to know: The basic functions of Twitter are free. Users who only want to read and write tweets don’t have to pay a cent. The platform is financed for the most part through advertisements – in the near future, however, premium functions such as the “super follower program” will also be added in Germany, which is likely to be irrelevant for standard users.

The top 5 Twitter profiles by followers

These are the highest-reach users on Twitter:

(Source: Socialtracker.io, as of: 13.10.2022)

Twitter: how to use the short message service

You can open Twitter as a website in the browser, most tweets are publicly readable there. Even without an account, you can read tweets there, for example from politicians or celebrities.

However, the majority of people use the portal as an app on their smartphone. To do this, you can simply go to your app store and download the program. Important: The app can only be used by creating an account. This also applies if you want to send tweets in the desktop version. To create an account, click on “Register” in the app or on the website and fill in the following fields:

• Surname: You can freely choose your account name
• phone number or E-mail address: You will be sent a message to verify your account after it has been created
• Date of birth: Twitter wants to know a date of birth, but this is not publicly displayed

Now you can personalize your Twitter settings via optional checkboxes:

• “Make the best use of Twitter“: Recommendations can be received via the specified email address/telephone number
• “Connect with people you know“: The specified email address/telephone number can be found by other users
• “Personalized Ads“: You allow Twitter to display activity-based ads

Two steps are now necessary:

• “We have sent you a code“: Twitter sends a code to the email address/telephone number, which is now requested
• “You must enter a password“: Finally, a password must be assigned that is at least eight characters long

Twitter can now be used, there are only two options for personalization that you can skip: selecting a different user name and subscription-based topic channels.

Twitter: How to blog with 280 characters

“Just setting up my twttr”: this was the first tweet published by Jack Dorsey on March 21, 2006. If you want to write a short message yourself, all you have to do in the app is tap on the big plus (in the desktop version on “Tweet” on the left in the sitemap). In addition to simple text, you can also publish images and GIFs, but what all types of tweet have in common is that you can choose two options: who can read the tweet and who can reply to it. Twitter gives you the option of restricting access to tweets to your own circle of followers.

You should know the following functions, terms and topics in order to be successful and safe on Twitter:

• bubbles: The Twitter algorithm shows its users posts according to their preferences, their existing subscriptions and their location. In the worst case, this creates a “filter bubble”: You only see tweets that match your existing preferences, other information is hidden.
• followers: In Twitter you can subscribe to the posts of other users – and be subscribed to yourself. As on other social media platforms, subscribers are called “followers”.
• hashtag: With the ‘#’ sign you can tag your tweets by topic and make them easier to find for other users. For example, you can add the hashtag “#soccer” to the text of a tweet about soccer.
• retweet: If you want to particularly support and spread the tweet of another user, you can retweet it. This tweet will then appear in your own timeline, naming the original author.
• troll: Unfortunately, trolls are a Twitter evil that most people come into contact with at some point: users who insult and bully others under cover of anonymity.

Twitter: How to delete your account

A Twitter account doesn’t have to last forever. If you want to leave the short message service, you have to proceed as follows: The sitemap takes you to the “Settings and Support” tab both in the app and on the website. Under “Settings and data protection”: “Your account” you have the option of deactivating your account for 30 days. The account will only be permanently deleted after these 30 days of inactivity: within this period you can change your mind.

Twitter business worth billions: Freedom of expression vs. hate speech and trolls

In November 2013, Twitter Inc. went public, and by the end of the first trading day the company was valued at over $24 billion. In the meantime, the short message service has become an integral part of pop culture and public life worldwide. Twitter’s contribution to freedom of speech and opinion is particularly valued in repressive political systems: tweets enable communication and information beyond state censorship.

Elsewhere, Twitter is also seen as controversial: The microblogging platform enables the publication of untruths, hate speech and insults, which are only censored by Twitter in special cases. Ex-US President Donald Trump, among others, made use of this, whose Twitter account was permanently blocked after numerous scandals in spring 2021 because of the risk of inciting violence. In Germany, for example, the streamer Drachenlord got to know Twitter from its toughest side: Rainer Winkler, known from YouTube and Twitch, has been tamed by trolls and haters there for many years.

The future of Twitter?

In spring 2022, billionaire Elon Musk announced that he wanted to buy Twitter. This was confirmed by the Twitter supervisory board through the conclusion of a purchase agreement with the Tesla founder. Musk had previously acquired 9.2 percent of the company’s shares. Elon Musk would like to turn Twitter into an international forum for freedom of expression and to defuse existing censorship measures on the platform: in the course of this, Donald Trump’s account would also be activated again.

In the summer of 2022, the billionaire surprisingly withdrew his purchase offer – according to him, the reason was incorrect information from the group about the number of fake accounts. Twitter then announced that it would sue for compliance with the purchase agreement. In autumn 2022 it became known that Musk now wanted to buy the short message service. However, it remains unclear whether Twitter will actually be part of Elon Musk’s company empire alongside SpaceX and Tesla in the future.