July 15 marks 20 years since Twitter first launched, and for one journalist, the platform remains far more than just a social media network. It became a front-row seat to history, transforming how news is reported, shared, and experienced across the world.
Although the earliest days of Twitter in 2006 are now a blur, the internet had already sparked a passion for sharing stories years earlier. Like many early web users, the journalist experimented with personal websites in the mid-1990s, long before social media created global communities. Those early efforts felt isolated, lacking the audience and interaction that platforms would later provide.
Services such as MySpace hinted at what was possible, but it was Facebook—and especially Twitter—that truly revolutionized online communication. A colleague at the BBC captured the excitement at the time by describing Twitter as a personal breaking news platform where anyone could set their own agenda.
The journalist quickly joined Twitter, though the first post is no longer memorable. What remains unforgettable is how the platform reshaped a career in international reporting.
Twitter’s real impact became clear during Iran’s 2009 Green Revolution. As protests spread across the country, the platform allowed citizens to share images, updates, and firsthand accounts in real time, offering perspectives often unavailable through traditional news organizations.
The experience demonstrated the growing power of citizen journalism. Years earlier, Iraqi blogger Salam Pax had gained global recognition by documenting the US-led invasion of Iraq through a personal blog. Twitter expanded that model dramatically, enabling thousands of ordinary people to become eyewitness reporters during conflicts, protests, and major world events.
Over the following years, Twitter became an essential tool for journalists covering revolutions, wars, and humanitarian crises. It connected reporters directly with sources, eyewitnesses, and audiences, fundamentally changing the speed and nature of news gathering.
Despite its rebranding as X, many longtime users still think of the platform as Twitter—a name closely tied to two decades of breaking news, public conversations, and historic moments that reshaped digital journalism.
