When "A People's History of Black Twitter" was launched in 2021, Twitter was still highly recognized as an influential medium of community engagement and information exchange. Even though it faced issues with trolls and lacking moderation, along with the rapid emergence of TikTok, Twitter maintained its prominent place.
However, the social media landscape changed significantly, especially after Elon Musk took over the platform in 2022. This transformation is reflected upon in Onyx Collective's Black Twitter: A People's History. Black Twitter's inception as a distinct entity is often traced back to 2009, linked to Ashley Weatherspoon's viral #UKnowUrBlackWhen.
This docuseries navigates through the journey of Black Twitter, from its humorous beginnings, its evolution into a force for social justice through the Black Lives Matter and #OscarsSoWhite movements, to its last major influence during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The show ties the legacy of Black Twitter to a wider cultural and historical context, making comparisons between civil rights movements and Black Lives Matter protests or drawing likenesses between the migration of white users from MySpace to Facebook.
As the docuseries covers such vast ground, it provides a broad overview rather than an in-depth exploration. Complex and interconnected concepts within the scope of the Black Twitter community are addressed but not sufficiently analyzed due to time constraints. However, as a starting point, the series effectively familiarizes the viewer with the immense reach of its key subject.
The series' pacing and visual style emulate the constant scroll of Twitter feeds. Key ideas from the interviewees are presented through video memes, brief text-based comments, and gifs, further embedding the Twitter experience.
While the series acknowledges Black Twitter as an intricate community with numerous unique sub-groups and internal clashes, it is able to weave these into a coherent narrative. It explores Twitter's progression from an appealing platform to an amplifier for marginalized voices, birthing space for candid conversations to leading up to its misuse by individuals like Donald Trump and Musk.
Despite these nuances, the overall focus remains on documenting an era as it unfolds so it is not lost with time. Although social media posts have a transient existence, their aftereffects can continue to reverberate, evidenced by the transformation in the dynamics of social influence as we know them today that is attributed to Black Twitter.
