In the months since Elon Musk’s dramatic takeover of Twitter in October last year, users have been pre-emptively mourning the end of the social media platform and threatening to switch to the various alternative networks cropping up. Enter: Threads. A new app from Meta, set to take on Twitter, which launches today. A preview of the “text-based conversation” app, which is linked to Instagram, says it will be a place “where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow”. Still, as flawed as Twitter is, it has an undoubtedly addictive allure that will prove difficult to replicate.
Not only has it seen some of the internet’s most hilarious moments (serving as a breeding ground of humour which eventually filters down to the users of Facebook and Instagram a few weeks later), it has also been a crucial tool for social change. From the Black Lives Matter and MeToo movements, to Greta vs Andrew Tate and *that* Kendall Jenner Pepsi advert, here are some of the highlights and pivotal moments in the website’s history.
