After half a decade on the downturn, the first quarter of 2020 saw a sudden surge of 166 million daily Twitter users as people across the world tried to keep up with the latest Covid-19 updates. This is the largest year-over-year user-growth ever announced by the social media giant – an increase of 32 million compared to the same period in 2019.

Social Media can, and has, given a voice to millions of normal individuals. It puts their opinions on an equal footing to heads of state and media personalities regardless of their colour, status and creed.  It provides a free stage to publish thoughts and ideas regardless of wealth and power. However, as Twitter approaches its 15^th birthday in 2021, the site has been criticised for returning to the centralisation and elite control of every other form of media.

The site has caused a stir among all sides of the political spectrum, with both the right and the left condemning the site for censorship, repressing free speech and spreading “fake news.” At its height more than half a billion tweets were sent a day, but this has declined at a rapid pace to a comparatively minor 300 million a day.

Despite its flaws, however, Twitter still has an important role to play in the modern world we live in. As well as providing an equal platform, regardless of who you are, it has become an important public relations tool for organisations, charities and political movements across the globe, most prominently empowering the #MeToo campaign in 2017 following the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations.

Twitter is making a revival, and it is important that it does. The world is changing, however, and it is vital that our social media networks listen to their users, embrace these changes and learn from them, or risk being made extinct.