Hashtag Inventor Quits Twitter; What’s His Grudge?

New York: Chris Messina revolutionised social media in 2007.

He invented the hashtag (#), that allowed users to apply dynamic, user-generated tagging which made it possible for others to easily find messages with a specific theme or content.

The 42-year-old American blogger, product consultant and speaker has now decided to quit Twitter to protest Elon Musk’s decision to remove the legacy blue badges.

Messina clarified that his decision to leave the microblogging site was not because his blue tick was revoked, rather it was the manner in which the verification situation was handled by the new owner.

“My choice isn’t about the badge… it’s about everything that leads up to the badge and how it has been handled. Whatever Twitter was before deserved more dignity and consideration than it’s received in the last six months,” Messina said.

His account has now been set to private.

Messina’s invention is extremely popular on various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Twitter even has a dedicated box where trending hashtags are displayed in real-time.

However, Musk himself is no fan of hashtags.

Replying to an image that had a tweet with hashtags created by ChatGPT on SpaceX, Musk wrote he doesn’t use hashtags.