Twitter

Nothing much stays with me from the first days of Twitter, which was publicly launched 20 years ago, on July 15, 2006.

I had discovered the internet back in 1995 and early on, I started thinking about how to get my voice heard by the world. I created a couple of websites through Angelfire and 8m, but there was no real ecosystem to nurture the idea. It’s like opening a shop to sell a certain product in a remote area – somewhere nobody really knows, at a time when there’s no interest – compared with opening that same shop in a mall, or on a street full of other vendors.

MySpace was another opening, but the idea was not yet ripe. Facebook came with a spark – and then we got Twitter.

“It’s like having your own breaking news platform, you’ll set your own agenda,” I remember one of my colleagues at the BBC, where I used to work, saying at the time.

It didn’t take me long to sign up. I cannot recall whether I tweeted immediately or not, yet what happened afterwards helped frame my future as an international journalist.

Twitter’s first defining moment for me was 2009’s Green Revolution in Iran, when I and others followed how the platform shaped the discourse in a way that differed completely from traditional media. We were not new to citizen journalism; a few years earlier, Salam Pax emerged as the first ever famous war blogger, presenting his distinctive view of the US-led invasion of Iraq through his individual blog. A few years later, tens of thousands of Salams have appeared – and I’m one of them.

Going through my early timeline, I see that I was tweeting randomly – an earthquake in Japan, an election in Lebanon, an explosion in Somalia, and so on. Then came the Arab Spring. Just as with many in the world, this was the moment that shaped my Twitter presence, and as I got involved in the coverage, I became well-positioned to post and attract followers.

My coverage of the Libyan revolution in March 2011 introduced me to many people and gave me a better understanding of what was happening. I was based in Sallum, a village on the Egyptian side of the Libyan border, without a connection of my own. I fed a colleague back in Cairo a sentence at a time over a crackling Thuraya satellite phone, and he typed my words into the account that I could not reach. Its password lived on my friend’s head until days later, when I finally got my hands on a satellite dish.

Trips to Libya, Egypt, Syria, Somalia – all of it made Twitter part and parcel of my journalistic journey, and it also helped me build a parallel path writing for international outlets including Al-Monitor and The Sunday Times.

Yet still, there was something else that changed my direction. Until 2013, I was a journalist covering stories without specialisation – I used to report from Iran, like I do today, yet it was not my career the way it currently is. But then I became a bureau chief in Tehran and my knowledge began growing – and here, Twitter gave me another layer, widening my network day after day.

Personally, that specialisation gave the platform its finest hour for me. I broke developments out of Iran’s nuclear talks with world powers before the news agencies had finished their first draft, filing in Arabic and English within minutes of each other and announcing the agreement itself while other newsrooms were still working on their bulletins.

The war against ISIL (ISIS) followed, then a January 2020 morning near Baghdad airport when my sources told me the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, and the deputy chief of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, were in a convoy hit by a US air strike – and I was among the first to say so.

Twitter was never only a wire service for other people’s wars. I’ve “met” heads of state and celebrities on this platform – and for a moment we felt equals. I have made my scoops there, and I have made my hugest gaffes there, too. You act and you interact and you see the result immediately, backlash or praise. It’s like a daily journal, one that outlives you. I know of many, some friends, some colleagues, some people I only happened to follow, who left our world while their accounts are still there – for us, and for me – to return to for the memory or to get a piece of information.

It was also where, on the 100th anniversary of World War I, that I told the story of my great-grandfather, Ali Hashem, who went to the war and never returned; and of my grandfather Hussein, who was three when his father was summoned to the Ottoman army and never saw him again.

It was where colleagues at Al Jazeera, stationed in the north of Palestine, went looking for my family’s village on my behalf, for a cemetery nearly in ruins, for a great-grandmother’s grave that has never been found.

It became, eventually, the subject of my own academic work too, a master’s thesis on Twiplomacy, examining how a platform built for gossip and jokes quietly rewired the choreography of nations, with Iran’s nuclear diplomacy as my case study.

In the summer of 2023 – sensing where things were headed, as new owner Elon Musk decided to change Twitter’s name to X, and to tragically, if I may so, kill the famous and lovely blue bird that accompanied the journey many made with the platform, including myself – I posted five words.

“Someone buy Twitter and save the bird.” Alas, nobody did, and the bird disappeared from the icon, and the name went with it, replaced by a single letter that still sits wrong in my mouth. In Arabic or in English, the word that comes out of me, though, is still Twitter.

Here’s a theory: It’d sure be easier for politicians to get away with flip-flops if there weren’t a bunch of their old tweets lying around like crime-scene DNA.

Check out this exchange from Monday night’s presidential debate.

HILLARY CLINTON: “Donald Trump thinks climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I think it’s real.”

DONALD TRUMP: “I did not. I did not. I do not say that. I do not say that.”

Except there’s this.

Even though it was four years old, Trump’s old tweet began picking up tens of thousands of retweets as the presidential debate raged on. (Reports that Trump’s team had deleted the tweet mid-debate were inaccurate. Also, while we’re here, the evidence is overwhelming: Climate change is real.)

It’s hard to imagine similar mass-sharing happening with a hard copy of a newspaper article, a years-old clipping suddenly passing through thousands of curious hands again. But thanks to Twitter, one of this election’s great accountability machines, what was old became new(s) again.

The phenomenon is also thanks in part to Trump himself, a prolific social-media user who, throughout this election, could have avoided storms of unfriendly retweets by deleting his old tweets — but he hasn’t, leaving himself a little more vulnerable to the searching eyes of his opponents.

Social media has been a dominant campaign medium in 2016, not just for the candidates but also for professional and amateur fact-checkers who have been doing their work with ferocious speed.

For gumshoes, it’s an arena of political argument aided by keyword searches, hyperlinks and screenshots, the kind of work that can be done on a smartphone while sitting on the couch. Opposition researchers, journalists and nonprofessionals alike have seen their handiwork go viral.

That means, for casual Twitter users, a candidate’s real-time remarks at a rally or a debate might appear in their feeds side-by-side with other users posting footage or transcripts of contradictory past statements.

Trump, who fact-checkers say routinely peddles fake information — like the lie that President Obama was born in Africa — has disproportionately seen his old tweets become targets, emerging again and again as objects of criticism, renewed with as little effort as hitting the retweet button. (Retweets are definitely not always endorsements.)

Twitter in particular has long been known as a place where professionals can lose their jobs or come under international pressure for saying something — well, often something pretty stupid, if not merely controversial. In recent years, online guides have offered recommendations for how regular users can delete old tweets lest they become liabilities.

The pressure is much higher on public figures. When comedian Trevor Noah won the job of hosting “The Daily Show,” he soon drew heat for old politically incorrect Twitter jokes; the same thing happened last week to new “Saturday Night Live” cast member Melissa Villasenor.

Some politicians have also gone on tweet-deleting escapades when a political situation suddenly goes sideways. Several lawmakers who welcomed Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl home from captivity in Afghanistan in 2014 later backtracked when information emerged suggesting Bergdahl may have deserted from his platoon. (Bergdahl goes to trial in 2017.)

Hoping to prevent politicians from editing the historical record, the Sunlight Foundation, a D.C.-based transparency advocacy group, runs a tool called Politwoops that tracks and preserves a record of when politicians delete tweets.

Many of the deleted tweets snared by Politwoops are innocuous typos. But a few reveal statements withdrawn after second thoughts, like U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller’s (R-Fla.) 2012 tweet, “Was Obama born in the United States?”

Yet Trump has not scrubbed his own notorious “birther” tweets, which he only recently publicly disavowed. (Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)

For a politician who has routinely made news with his tweets — from retweeting white supremacists to congratulating himself after the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, Fla. (“for being right on radical Islamic terrorism”) — Trump’s history of Twitter deletions in Politwoops is mostly for mispellings and bygone media appearances, rather than withdrawing substantive remarks.

Trump, for example, drew criticism in August for tweeting: “Dwayne Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!”

Critics accused Trump of using a person’s death to pander to black voters, pointing out he hadn’t even bothered to offer condolences, and the Trump account soon deleted the tweet — so it could put up a new version of the same tweet, this time with NBA star Dwyane Wade’s name spelled correctly.

It’s still there.

Clinton’s Twitter account deletes a few tweets a month, though in each instance it’s not clear why. Clinton is better known for her tweet to Trump, “Delete your account” — a popular Internet joke — which has earned nearly 500,000 retweets.

Now, the question arises of how Trump changes — or doesn’t change — after the election, win or lose.

“In this election, we’re talking more about the tweets that aren’t deleted than the tweets that are, and that’s an interesting reflection on where we are and how we view social media,” said Josh Stewart, a spokesman at the Sunlight Foundation. “It would be interesting to see if the use of social media by politicians changes after this election, or if he’s an outlier.”

Email: matt.pearce@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter: @mattdpearce

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The overcrowding one of the most popular tourist islands in Europe has sparked comparisons to a ‘long toilet line’ – with large crowds gathering as early as 7am

Holidaymakers have been warned a beautiful Greek island and one of the most popular sunshine resorts in Europe has descended into “one long toilet line”.

Travel content creator Mambo Italiano took to X to share footage of the scene recorded at 7am – with dozens of men, women and children tourists queuing into the streets at a photo spot. “Social media trends have turned the world’s most beautiful places into endless bathroom lines at a concert, where everyone waits for hours just to take the same photo to show to people who couldn’t care less,” she ranted in a caption.

“Nothing captures the shallow decay of our time better than this.”

The clip in question was recorded in Oia on the island of Santorini, which is located in the southern Aegean Sea – around 120 miles from the Greek mainland.

Mambo Italiano’s video followed the queue around several corners to reach its end – a lookout point over the crystal-blue sea overlooking Santorini’s famous blue-domed Greek Orthodox churches from an excellent vantage point.

“Oia is an over touristed,” one X user exclaimed in response. “One of the worst places I’ve been. Other parts of Santorini are lovely.”

A second person concurred: “I have to agree – there are much better areas on the island. Oia is good for photos and that’s about it.”

While a third explained: “People are no longer visiting places to see and enjoy. They want to visit and photograph themselves on those places, so then they can post them social media for likes and attention, with the only intent of saying, ‘oh look at me, I was here and you not’ and ‘look how special I am’ etc etc etc.

“That’s the only reason for those long queues, it is not to see and enjoy, it’s only to show off.”

And a fourth X user agreed: “Everything has turned into an influencers Instagram photo shoot. Beautiful places are ruined by main character syndrome narcissists.

“Every new eatery has a grass wall outside the entrance, loud music and serves high priced s*** on a plate.”

According to Greek Trip Planner figures from INSETE and municipal data show approximately 3.4 million visitors reach Santorini through a combination of air arrivals, cruise ship tenders, and inter-island ferries each year.

“The 3.4 million annual visitors produce a ratio of approximately 220 tourists for every resident per year – or, expressed differently, 107.8 tourists per 100 inhabitants at any given time during peak season,” they added.

“This density figure, documented in a 2018 European Commission study, placed Santorini beyond the measurable limits of standard overtourism indicators.”

May 4 (UPI) — Elon Musk on Monday settled a lawsuit filed against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission for $1.5 million after the agency accused him of breaking securities laws.

The SEC alleged in January 2025 that Musk cost Twitter shareholders $150 million because he delayed disclosing his purchase of more than 5% of shares in the company within the 10 days required by law.

Musk’s purchase of Twitter led to a series of lawsuits because of how he purchased the company, which has since been renamed to X, which saw him become its biggest shareholder before he launched a successful hostile takeover, The Washington Post reported.

In the settlement, which still needs to be approved by a judge, would see Musk pay a $1.5 million penalty while allowing him to admit no wrongdoing, CNBC reported.

“A trust vehicle has agreed to a small fine for being late on one filing,” Musk attorney Alex Spiro said of the agreement, which will see one of his client’s revocable trusts paying the fine.

Musk made a play to buy Twitter in 2022, first buy purchasing more than 5% of the company, which he did not disclose and was the reason the SEC filed suit, which allowed him to put other investors in a poor position before he launched his takeover.

The popular airline offered reassurance to passengers in a message shared on social media

Jet2 has offered reassurance to passengers worried about passport control queues at Spanish airports. In recent weeks, British travellers visiting the popular destination have reported long queues following the rollout of the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System.

In response, the airport authority, AENA, has reportedly directed staff to take all possible measures to streamline the process and reduce waiting times. In light of the border control queues, passengers have also been contacting airlines on social media to find out what to do in the worst-case scenario.

For instance, a Jet2 customer recently contacted the travel firm on X to ask for advice. @Jet2tweets often offers assistance to Jet2.com and Jet2holidays passengers on social media.

In a post shared on April 28, a passenger named Laura wrote: “With the crazy queues at Spanish airports to get through passport control, can you guarantee that I won’t miss my transfer bus? Thanks.”

In response, Jet2 said: “Hi Laura, any congestion caused by passport control our airport team will be aware off and will make sure there is a plan in place, so customer do not miss their transfers. Thanks, Gemma.”

Sharing a further message, Laura continued: “Thanks Gemma. Last time it took nearly 3 hours to get through – I’m hoping there won’t be any issues even if it’s that long?” Jet2 replied: “Rest assured our team will be aware of any congestion and plans will be in place.”

Passengers with transfers can find more information about the service on the Jet2holidays website, with transfers to and from hotels included with all Jet2holidays. The website says: “You’ll be met at the airport by our friendly Red Team who’ll then show you to your coach. Once onboard, you’ll be informed whether you are the first, second or third stop.

“Coach transfer information will be available in the Jet2 app when you land in your destination. We’ll also send it by SMS. Whether you have a coach, private or adapted transfer, our friendly Red Team will be on hand to guide you and help you on your way.”

The EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) requires visitors from non-member countries such as the UK to have their fingerprints recorded and a photograph captured to enter the Schengen Area, which comprises 29 European countries, predominantly within the EU. While the new system was initially introduced in October, it became fully operational on April 10, 2026.

The Mirror has contacted Jet2 for comment.