The year Twitter died: a special series from The Verge

Twitter was so many things.

Elon Musk killed Twitter. First, he did it figuratively: firing most employees, destabilizing it as a technology and a business, leaving the platform virtually unusable for those who remained. Then, he killed it literally: renaming it X, giving Twitter a final ending after 15 years of chaotic existence.

But in death, there is understanding — now that it’s over, we can reckon with what Twitter really was: a news cycle accelerator, a tool of mass harassment, an idealistic money-losing workplace, and an infinite joke machine.

2023 will go down as…

THE YEAR TWITTER DIED

Link
Link
Link
Link

Image key

Haunted moon
Blue check

Jack Dorsey with Death and Bitcoin
Unicorn
Macaulay Culkin
Really big beet
Karen
They’re good dogs Brent
Dril
Goblin, ghoul or zombie with no conscience

SpaghettiOs commemorating national tragedy
Can of beans, uneaten
Tim Robinson in hot dog costume

Not a pipe
Traffic light sign
Goblin, ghoul or zombie
Roald Dahl’s Charlie Bucket, dead
Teach a kid to podcast
A beer
X
September 21
Cat exercising
Aerobics instructor in Myanmar dancing through the coup
Elon Musk being hosed
The Worst Guy You Know

UFO
Bot
Llama
NPC
These are my only moods
Horse, front view

A cat holding a sign

Naomi Wolf’s nemesis, a vaccinated teddy bear
Joyce Carol Oates

Woman prison guard