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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Dan Milmo Global technology editor

From Ed Balls to BTS: the greatest hits in Twitter’s history

Ed Balls Twitter Inc. BTS Elon Musk Barack Obama David Cameron Donald Trump United States Ed Miliband Ellen DeGeneres
Elon Musk's tweet reading
Elon Musk's tweet reading "The bird is freed" after he finally took control of the company. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

Twitter has great influence for a social media platform. It has a comparatively modest 230 million users, given that the likes of Instagram, Facebook and TikTok have user bases that run into the billions. But Twitter is beloved of politicians, celebrities, commentators and journalists and can have a great impact on the political and news cycle as a result. Here are some of the best-known and notorious tweets in the company’s 16-year history.

The first tweet

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