I've been working on this for ages. I talked to @phontigallo @deray @AngelaNissel and a million other people to trace the history of Black social media from AOL Black voices to TikTok. The conclusion: y'all owe Black folks for EVERYTHING. https://theundefeated.com/features/a-blessing-and-a-curse-the-rich-history-behind-black-twitter/

I talked about MySpace and BlackPlanet as a gateway to coding for Black folks. OkayPlayer, NikeTalk and LSA as message board havens that paved the way for social media. Twitter as a space of activism. And TikTok as a beacon of black culture.

also this was the first time I made this journalistic decision and am trying to stick to it: I'm trying to make sure at least 50% of the people I interview for stories are black women.

and it was important I did it for this piece because at the heart of all of these social media ventures was Black women pushing the culture forward.

I also talked to two of the people who taught me like 79% of what I know about the internet @infamylives and @JohnGotty lol

also this was an assignment straight from @danamo which, again, I'm always humbled when she entrusts me with these things.

And as always shout out to @StephenReiss on his tireless work on this