On 16 July 2006, TechCrunch covered the launch of a new service called Twttr, which it described as “a sort of ‘group send’ SMS application”. Four months earlier, the user @jack, co-founder Jack Dorsey, had sent his first message on the platform. Since then, what has become known as Twitter has made headlines for various reasons: its 2013 IPO, when it ended the day up 72.84%, and subsequent poor performance when shares dropped below their IPO price; the ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel battle between footballers’ wives Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy, which is still being fought in the UK courts; and the platform’s seismic banning of then-President Donald Trump in January 2021.
On 29 November, Twitter hit the headlines again, this time over the resignation of chief executive Dorsey and appointment of chief technology officer Parag Agrawal as his successor. “Agrawal isn’t the most well-known of names either inside or outside of Twitter,” writes Chaim Gartenberg in an article for The Verge, going on to speculate that his stance on moderating misinformation could lead to further “issues with Republican politicians, many of whom are already opposed to Twitter’s moderation policies”.
However, media in India, Agrawal’s birthplace, where he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, are celebrating his promotion, the latest in a series of high-profile appointments which is described in a clip by India Today as “the rise of Indian tech titans”.
Weibo to list in Hong Kong
Twitter – along with fellow tech giants Facebook and Google – is banned in China. However, the Chinese Twitter-like online networking platform Weibo has hundreds of millions of users and is valued at around US$8bn. The platform is now offering 11 million shares at a maximum price of US$49.75 ahead of its secondary listing in Hong Kong, according to a South China Morning Post article by Georgina Lee.
“Chinese issuers have typically set the final price of their Hong Kong secondary offerings at a tight discount to their US-listed shares, because a big deviation from their [American depositary receipt] levels can lead to choppy trading of their stock after debut,” writes Lee.
“Listing in Hong Kong is seen as a hedge against the risk of being removed from US exchanges and a way of accessing an investor base closer to their home markets,” according to a Japan Today article, while Weibo has stated that it plans to use the funds raised from the listing to grow its user base and invest in research and development.
Lush logs off
According to a Wall Street Journal article by Chun Han Wong, China has reportedly sentenced more than 50 people to prison for posts on social media critical of the government. But Mark Constantine, co-founder of the cosmetics company Lush, sees dangers of a different kind in the platforms. On 26 November, the brand “deactivated its Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat accounts in all 48 countries in which it operates”, writes Nick Levine in an article for media and entertainment website Refinery29.
The move follows ‘Facebook whistleblower’ Frances Haugen’s claims that the company “amplifies hate, misinformation and political unrest”, according to a CBS News article by Scott Pelley. However, of main concern to Lush is more likely to be Facebook-owned Instagram’s impact on children. According to a report by Bobby Allyn for non-profit media organisation NPR, one study leaked by Haugen reveals that 13.5% of UK teenage girls say their suicidal thoughts became more frequent after using Instagram; another revealed that 17% said their eating disorders escalated.
“Like so many teenagers have experienced before us, Lush has tried to come off social media, but our FOMO [fear of missing out] is vast, and our compulsion to use the various platforms means we find ourselves back on there, despite our best intentions,” reads a statement issued by Lush. “So here we are again, trying to go cold (plant-based) turkey.”
According to an Insider article by Tyler Sonnemaker, the company anticipates that the move could cost it US$13.3m in lost sales, but Constantine has been quoted as saying he is “happy to lose” the revenue.