Twitter: Breaking the Bird – a 'riveting' documentary

BBC2's 'fascinating' film charts the social media platform's fall from grace

X and Twitter logos.
X: 'not exactly utopian' from the start
(Image credit: Alamy / Iain Masterton)

"Twitter: Breaking the Bird" gives a compelling account of how "wild-eyed Silicon Valley dreaming" can unfurl into "disturbing, ideological dogma", said Chris Bennion in The Telegraph.

The "riveting" documentary begins in the "halcyon days" of 2005, when a young "ragtag" gang gathered in a "crummy office" in San Francisco to try their hands at "inventing the future". Jack Dorsey, who went on to become Twitter's first CEO, came up with the idea for a site that would allow its users to microblog each other in real time, sharing their thoughts through short messages.

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Irenie Forshaw is a features writer at The Week, covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, before working at The Guardian and The New Statesman Group. Irenie then became a senior writer at Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column.