Twitter was a social media platform where people shared short messages called tweets, limited at first to 140 characters (later expanded to 280).

Launched in 2006, Twitter became influential because it let people share news, thoughts, and updates instantly with the world. Major news sometimes appeared on Twitter before traditional news outlets could report it. Politicians, celebrities, scientists, and regular people all used it to communicate directly with audiences. The platform helped popularize the hashtag (the # symbol) as a way to label topics and join conversations.

The word twitter itself means to make light, trembling sounds like birds do, or to talk rapidly in a nervous or excited way. Someone might twitter nervously before giving a speech, their words coming out quick and shaky.

In 2023, the company changed its name to X, though many people still call it Twitter out of habit. The word has also become a verb: people tweet when they post messages on the platform.

The platform showed how technology could connect people across the world in real time, and it also demonstrated how quickly information (and misinformation) can spread when everyone has an instant global megaphone.