Chris Messina, the creator of hashtags that are used to categorize messages, has left Twitter and criticized Elon Musk’s handling of the platform. Messina, who proposed the concept of hashtags in 2007, said goodbye to the platform following the loss of his verification badge. Twitter has also started to delete the blue ticks this month and users who want to keep their badge would need to pay for a Twitter Blue subscription.
Messina clarified that his choice to leave the platform wasn’t just about the badge but also about how Twitter has been handled in the last six months. He noted that Twitter deserved more dignity and consideration than it has been given lately.
Hashtags were introduced by Messina in 2007 to allow users to look up topics by using the hash sign (#) and quickly filter out subject searches. The concept has gained considerable traction on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Trending hashtags are now shown in real-time on Twitter.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, expressed his dislike for hashtags in a tweet from last month. In response to a tweet that used hashtags about his rocket company SpaceX, Musk hinted that he doesn’t use them. The Twitter community began speculating whether Musk would ban hashtags from Twitter.
Twitter’s premium version, the ‘Twitter Blue’ paid subscription service, has replaced the blue checkmarks used to verify prominent users. The change came into effect on Thursday night and has caused many high-profile users to lose their verified status or blue ticks as they chose not to pay for the subscription.
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