The micro-blogging, social media platform, Twitter, emerged into the media ecosphere in 2006 almost simultaneously with Facebook (now Meta). The era of pervasive social media, as we now know it, began.

Twitter evolved through a series of changes and difficulties. The demagogue, Donald Trump, used it as his personal "broadcast channel" before being banned for contravening the Twitter "rules" around disinformation.

More recently, the oligarch, Elon Musk, whose name (and personal brand) is attached to the Tesla electric vehicle company and Space-X, finally purchased the Twitter company for 44 billion US dollars, after a fraught period of trying to back out of the acquisition and a legal battle. Since his take-over, there have been m ...