Chris Messina, the originator of hashtags, allegedly said “goodbye” to Twitter when his blue tick was deleted. Messina, on the other hand, said that he is leaving the platform not because of the badge but because of how the verification problem was handled.
“My choice isn’t about the badge; it’s about everything that leads up to the badge and how it has been handled. Whatever Twitter was before deserved more dignity and consideration than it’s received in the last six months,” Messina said (via The Verge). His account has now been set to private.
What are hashtags, and why are they important?
A hashtag is a word or phrase that is placed after the hash sign (#). It may be used in a social media post to assist individuals who are interested in a certain subject. People may use hashtags to locate posts that are connected to them.
Hashtags on social media sites have proven a useful tool for driving engagement. In 2007, Messina proposed that individuals use the # sign to form groups. Since then, hashtags have grown in popularity on social media sites such as Twitter and Instagram.
On Twitter, there is a specific section where users can check which hashtags are trending. They may also be used to see how many tweets have been submitted with a certain hashtag, which informs us what is being discussed on the social media site.
Additionally, hashtags may be used to identify top tweets, the newest tweets, photographs, and videos relating to a certain topic.
Elon Musk isn’t a fan of hashtags
Twitter CEO Elon Musk, on the other hand, despises hashtags and expressed his displeasure in a tweet last month. He was responding to a picture with a tweet generated by ChatGPT about SpaceX, Musk’s rocket maker.
The message used hashtags, and Musk responded with a tweet claiming he doesn’t use hashtags.
It missed the mark. I hate hashtags.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 22, 2023
After his tweet, the Twitterati started to wonder whether Musk will remove hashtags from Twitter.
