Twitter, now known as X, was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July 2006. Originally named "Twttr", the short message service (SMS) was designed using Ruby on Rails. Twitter is a social media platform where users can interact with short messages, images, videos, and live streams. The first tweet was sent by Jack Dorsey, which read: “just setting up my Twttr”. Twitter's popularity grew significantly after being presented at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, in March 2007.
In April 2023, Twitter, Inc. merged with X Holdings, becoming part of X Corp. Later, in March 2025, X Corp. merged with Elon Musk's startup xAI. Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion, stating his goal was to promote free speech on the platform. Following Musk's acquisition, concerns arose regarding content moderation, censorship, and the spread of misinformation and hate speech. In July 2023, the platform was rebranded to X, retiring the iconic bird logo. Despite controversies, X remains a significant platform for real-time news, trends, and social commentary.