I am going to make history here as the first president to live tweet.
From politics.
Another day, another tweet storm here for Donald Trump.
To entertainment. You guys here on Twitter right.
To activism, Twitter has become a staple of our modern society.
I don't think that there's ever been a tool before in the history of
mankind where you can just so easily share what you got to say with so
many people so quickly.
I just wanted to see everything that was happening, not just where people
were, but what what they were doing, you know?
And I wanted to be able to see the world in real time.
But it's sheer volume of content disseminated in more than 40 languages.
Twitter has become an online running theme for recording our global
history. But a social platform success has not come without questions
around the company's profitability and growth and controversy around its
role in deciding what content should and should not be broadcast to its
166 million daily active users.
In 2006, Twitter was born out of the ashes of another San Francisco startup
called Odeo. The company was trying to do like Internet radio, but it
wasn't really panning out and they were running out of money.
But in 2005, it became clear that Odeo couldn't compete with Apple's
iTunes. So that's when they turned to all the employees.
And they said that if you have an idea.
Now is the time to try it.
And at the time, one of the engineers, Jack Dorsey, he spoke up about his
idea to essentially let users send out a broad text message to folks
through this thing called Twitter.
Twitter's 140 character limit was originally inspired by the length limit
of SMS messages.
This would later be expanded to 280 characters.
By March 2006, Dorsey had created a working prototype of the platform and
sent his first tweet out into the world.
Where the company really started to gain a foothold with the mainstream was
in 2007 at the South by Southwest event in Austin.
During the event, Twitter tripled its traffic from 20000 to 60000 tweets
per day. That same year, Dorsey was officially voted in as Twitter's CEO,
a title which he didn't hold onto for very long.
He was very young, very green, and he wasn't particularly polished as CEO.
This led to his ouster in 2008.
Twitter co-founder Evan Williams took the reins of the company after
Dorsey's departure. In 2010, he was succeeded by Dick Costolo, formerly
Twitter's chief operating officer.
Three years later, Costolo took the company public.
The stock had an astounding first day of trading, which pushed Twitter's
market capitalization above 32 billion dollars.
At the time, its market cap was larger than 337 companies and the S&P 500.
By then, Twitter had grown to a company of more than 2000 employees and
more than 200 million active users.
But the good times didn't last forever.
Twitter shares plunging on Tuesday as the company's first quarter earnings
leaked early and showed the weakest revenue growth since its IPO.
Feeling the pressure, Costolo made the decision to step down as CEO in June
of 2015.
He was succeeded by a familiar face at the company.
It wasn't until 2015 that Dorsey was finally brought back in, and during
that period he really had to prove his worth.
He did a very Steve Jobs move and that he went and founded another company
Square in this case that really took off and showed that Dorsey wasn't a
one hit wonder. That same year, Twitter would take on a new role as the
megaphone for the soon to be leader of the free world.
I am officially running for president of the United States.
During his campaign, Donald Trump used Twitter as a public square to
promote ideas that appeal to his base as a weapon to attack his opponents.
And as a tool to lash out at the media.
Then suddenly, his tweets became the mouthpiece for a sitting president.
The office of president of the United States, the office of president of
the United States.
When Trump was running for president, Trump had lots of ways to kind of go
into attack mode and in exercise his audience, he could do press
interviews. He could do rallies as soon as he became president, a lot of
those avenues of communicating directly to the public were closed off to
Trump. And so in some ways, Twitter was the only thing left for him.
As president Trump's Twitter use has not changed much.
According to New York, The New York Times, President Trump has insulted 459
people, places and things on Twitter.
Trump has often been criticized for his comments on Twitter.
Like when he told four minority Democratic congresswomen to go back to the
crime infested places from where they came, as well as promoting
conspiracy theories like the one about MSNBC host Joe Scarborough having
something to do with the death of a former staffer.
If you could come up with an ideal medium of communication for Donald
Trump, it would be Twitter.
It's really encourages people if they want to get noticed.
They want to get attention to say something outrageous, abrasive, very
partisan. Something that grabs people emotionally.
And decides rallying his base.
Trump's Twitter feed has come to set the national dialogue.
Trump in some ways is very sophisticated in that he tends to tweet early in
the morning or early in the day and then that immediately from the from
the morning talk shows on all day.
In many cases sets the agenda for what people talk about.
Trump has even used Twitter to threaten other countries.
President Trump now raising that temperature in a fiery tweet after Kim
Jong-Un threatened he had a nuclear button and the U.S.
in his range. President Trump writing, "Will someone from his depleted and
food starved regime please inform him that I, too, have a nuclear button?
But it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his.
And my button works."
President Trump has really pushed the boundaries for what is allowed to be
said on social media.
So to deal with world leaders like President Trump, Twitter actually
introduced a new policy in October 2019 that outlines what is in what is
not allowed from these users.
Some instances where Twitter says it is more likely to remove a tweet is if
the tweet promotes terrorism, violence and suicide or self-harm, or if
it's use in any illegal activity or for manipulating or interfering with
elections. But for the most part, Twitter gives a lot of leeway to elected
officials. Twitter argues that world leaders, what they say has so much
value that oftentimes it's better to erred on the side of leaving things
up for the sake of the newsworthy ness and how important that is to their
constituents. But most recently, Twitter placed a label on a Trump tweet
saying that the tweet violated the platform's policies against abusive
behavior. Trump's tweet said that those who try to create an autonomous
zone in Washington, D.C., will, quote, "be met with serious force."
Twitter and Facebook also removed a doctored viral video of two toddlers
shared by President Trump after one of the parents issued a copyright
complaint. When talking about the Black Lives Matters protesters in a
recent tweet. President Trump said when the looting starts, the shooting
starts. And that was really close to violating Twitter's line, saying that
they did not allow any content from world leaders in regards to clear and
direct threats of violence.
Twitter reacted by putting Trump's tweet behind a warning.
The company also curtailed the tweets reach.
It can still be viewed and retweeted with a comment.
But users cannot like, reply to or retweet it.
That was something that we haven't really seen before, and it certainly
drew the ire of President Trump.
In general, it's obviously something he's viscerally upset about because
Twitter is so important not only to his presidency.
But I think by now to his personality.
Just a day earlier, Trump, who was already upset with Twitter for placing
fact check labels on his tweets about mail in ballots, signed an executive
order aimed at curtailing the liability protection that large social media
companies get through Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
One of the key provisions of the act is something called conduit immunity.
This is court created law from the 1940s, which basically says if you are
just the intermediary, you're not responsible for the content that is
transmitted. Think of it as a library, not being liable for the content of
its books. But the more important provision is the second section, which
made clear that platforms could moderate content that could remove lewd,
lascivious or otherwise objectionable content without assuming liability
or either the removal of that content or the failure to catch any content
that they didn't remove.
Trump's executive order is already being challenged, and its limits
questioned. Public opinion on the matter seems to be split.
A recent report found that 66 percent of Americans support keeping Section
230, but eight in 10 Americans don't trust Internet companies to police
the content on their platforms.
We have this medium that was fashioned for just casual, innocuous
sharing of thoughts and pictures among friends suddenly being used for
political speech.
And I think, you know, I think Twitter was completely unprepared for that.
Never had that idea in mind.
And so Twitter has struggled, as have other social media, with their role
in policing political speech.
Though Twitter's approach to regulating political speech has been a bit
stricter than its rivals.
It's still plagued with hate speech and disinformation.
Recently, companies like Unilever, Coca-Cola, Starbucks and others have
halted advertising on social media platforms, demanding companies do more
to stop hate for profit.
Twitter's ability to amplify messages at lightning speed has also made it a
useful tool for social movements.
People use a number of different ways to engage politically on social
media. So we see that people are using hashtags.
They're also asking other people to take action on an issue.
And you also see people using social media to find rallies and protests in
their area. We first started to see Twitter be used in an activist type of
way during the Arab Spring that started back in 2010.
And that's kind of like the first moment where people really took to the
service to get movement going to spread hashtags and just get people
motivated. And though the Me Too movement started in 2006, it exploded on
Twitter in 2017 after actress Alyssa Milano urged victims of sexual abuse
to share their stories.
The hashtag Me Too went viral in the wake of accusations of misconduct
against Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein.
The Black Lives Matter hashtag first gained traction on Twitter in 2013
after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed unarmed black
teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida.
Since then, the hashtag has transformed into a roaring cry usually used in
connection with police related deaths of black Americans.
On May 28th alone, there were 8.8 million Twitter posts that use the
hashtag. Black social media users are more likely than other groups to say
that social media is personally important for them to get involved with
issues that they care about.
They're also more likely to say that social media can help hold powerful
people accountable.
But how effective social media activism is remains a big question.
On one hand, you do see a majorities of Americans in our 2018 survey said
that social media was a way to get voices that are often underrepresented
for their voices to be heard.
At the same time, 71 percent of participants in the survey said that they
thought that social media makes people feel as if they're making a
difference when they're actually not.
Even as it's become a useful tool for change, Twitter has not grown in the
same way as other social media competitors.
Growth has been an issue for Twitter for quite a while and throughout its
history. For a while, the company was stuck at 300 million monthly active
users. It was essentially a number that refused to go up.
Sser numbers for Twitter or crucial since that's how the company makes
money. Advertising is Twitter's biggest revenue stream, and within that,
video ads are actually the fastest growing part of Twitter's advertising.
When you think about user base, the larger the base, obviously, the more
opportunities you have to attract advertisers.
Compared to other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram,
Twitter has a significantly lower user base.
And while Facebook stock has soared, Twitter stock reached its peak
shortly after it IPO'd and has remained at about half of its peak value
ever since. The reason Twitter is smaller than its peers.
One is, I think, a legacy of not improving its tech and product.
I think as you've gone forward, they've gotten much more comfortable with
iterating the product.
And so it's playing catch up.
When Trump took office, Twitter was in a really tough spot.
They were losing executives.
Twitter shares lower this morning by about 4 percent.
CEO Jack Dorsey says four amazing executives have chosen to leave the
company, including the heads of product, engineering and media.
It was high turnover.
There was a lot of concern.
And that's why Twitter stock was sort of broken and it had sort of
collapsed towards its lows.
Disney had passed on buying its Salesforce had passed on buying it.
And Google passed on buying it.
And, you know, I think in many ways sort of the product changes at Twitter
combined with it becoming more and more of a platform for information and
to communicate information, whether from the president or from athletes or
whatever it may be. I think all of that created sort of this perfect storm
of events to reinvigorate Twitter.
As part of this reinvigoration, Twitter focused on making its platform
easier to use.
When you open up Twitter, the machine learning and the A.I.
has made it easier for you to just see what you're interested in.
Versus historically, it was hunting and pecking and trying to find the
information that you were interested in.
Just a few years ago, it was a reverse chronology, right?
Like you just saw tweets in real time and whether they were interesting to
you or not. Now it's all about showing you what you care about.
Topics lets users see tweets about a certain interests, say sports, without
having to follow individual accounts.
This makes starting out on the platform a little easier.
Twitter's explore tab puts trending topics, news and search in one place
and is now location relevant.
The company is also testing "Fleets".
Similar to Instagram stories, these tweets disappear within 24 hours of
being posted, and the most recent edition lets users record a tweet using
audio. Though the feature came under fire initially for not being
accessible to individuals with hearing problems.
Some have also criticized Twitter for harassment and the spread of
misinformation. Most Americans do not trust the kind of news that they get
on social media.
We also see that majorities are concerned about things like cyber bullying
and harassment.
There's also concerns when it relates to digital privacy and data
collections. For many years, the service was plagued by how harmful the
content could be to users in terms of harassment.
People would just slide in your DM's and say hateful things.
They'll they'll, you know, call you all sorts of slurs and whatnot.
And there is no way to really shield yourself from it other than getting
off of the app. But Twitter has taken steps to mitigate hateful
exchanges. Over the years, we have seen them introduce features where you
can essentially mute words that perhaps you just don't ever want to hear.
You can mute users.
You can block users.
And the platforms changes seem to be paying off.
From a growth standpoint user wise, Twitter is now by far the fastest
growing company in the space, outpacing the global growth you're seeing at
Snapchat and Facebook.
About 25 percent year over year growth.
These are growth rates that investors just never, never believed could
occur. And some investors see Twitter as a good bet for the future.
Obviously, Twitter is challenged in the current environment because a lot
of events have been canceled and a lot of the big brands have pulled back
on advertising. But the growth in the user base, that's not going to go
away on top of it.
The event lineup for 2021 and 2022 because of the compression and how
things got pushed out, is going to lead to tremendous amounts of
opportunities for Twitter to monetize that larger user base in '21 and '
22. So if you're looking out, you know, this quarter is going to be tough,
next quarter is going to be tough as you look out to twenty one and twenty
two if you have patience, Twitter is going to be a great stock.