Social Media Evolution: A Complete Timeline

Social media platforms are internet-based services that allow users to create, share, and interact with content and each other, beginning with Six Degrees in 1…

SixDegrees.com Launches as the World's First Recognisable Social Network

Andrew Weinreich launched SixDegrees.com in 1997, enabling users to create personal profiles, compile friend lists, and send messages within those lists — the three func…

MySpace Launches and Creates the First Mass-Market Social Media Culture

MySpace launched in August 2003 and became the most visited website in the United States by 2006, briefly overtaking Google. It allowed users to customise their profile…

Mark Zuckerberg Launches Facebook from a Harvard Dormitory Room

Mark Zuckerberg launched 'TheFacebook' on 4 February 2004 as a Harvard-only network, distinguishing it from MySpace by enforcing real-name identity and a clean, unclutte…

Jack Dorsey Sends the First Tweet, Launching Microblogging as a Category

On 21 March 2006, Jack Dorsey posted 'just setting up my twttr' — the first message on what became Twitter. The platform launched publicly in July 2006 with a 140-charac…

Instagram Debuts and Transforms Social Media into a Visual-First Medium

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched Instagram on 6 October 2010, gaining 25,000 users on day one. By focusing exclusively on photographs with filters applied via sma…

Reliance Jio's 4G Launch Brings 400 Million Indians onto Social Media

When Reliance Jio commercially launched on 5 September 2016, offering free 4G data and calls for the first six months, it triggered the most rapid expansion of internet…

Cambridge Analytica Scandal Forces Global Reckoning on Social Media Data Privacy

In March and April 2018, investigative reporting by The Guardian and The New York Times revealed that Cambridge Analytica had harvested the personal data of approximatel…

India Bans TikTok and 58 Chinese Apps, Reshaping the Short-Video Market

On 29 June 2020, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese-origin apps under Section 69A of the Information Technolog…

Elon Musk Acquires Twitter for $44 Billion and Rebrands It X

Elon Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter on 27 October 2022 for $44 billion USD, immediately dismissing its CEO, CFO, and legal counsel and beginning mass layoffs…

Meta Launches Threads, Gaining 100 Million Users in Five Days

Meta launched Threads on 5 July 2023, positioning it as a direct rival to X by integrating it with Instagram's existing identity infrastructure — users could sign up wit…

Generative AI Integration Transforms Social Media Content Creation and Discover…

By 2024, every major social media platform had integrated generative AI tools into its core product: Meta introduced AI-generated stickers, image editing, and chatbots a…