Lifestyle Business

As first-ever tweet turns 15 years old, it's now auctioned for $2.5 million

Agence France-Presse

March 22, 2021 | 9:30am

As first-ever tweet turns 15 years old, it's now auctioned for $2.5 million

In this file photo illustration, a Twitter logo is displayed on a mobile phone on May 27, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia. Twitter said on July 23, 2020, user growth soared in the past quarter even as ad revenues took a hit amid civil unrest in the US. The short-messaging service reported a net loss of $1.2 billion in the quarter, most of that coming from setting aside funds for income taxes.

AFP / Olivier DOULIERY

Fifteen years ago Jack Dorsey typed out a banal message — "just setting up my twttr" — which became the first-ever tweet, launching a global platform that has become a controversial and dominant force in civil society.

The short tweet on March 21, 2006 by the Twitter CEO is now being sold at auction, with bidding reaching $2.5 million.

It has been a long, strange journey for the social network, which in January deleted former president Donald Trump's account after he was blamed for inciting the violent insurrection on the US Capitol in January by extremist supporters seeking to overturn his election loss.

The banning of a head of state from the platform was both welcomed and denounced in a sign of the thin line Twitter and other social media networks often try to walk between neutrality, freedom of expression, and moderation and prevention of abuse.

Bidding on Dorsey's tweet ends later Sunday. He has said he will donate the funds to charity.

Dorsey's tweet will be sold as an NFT, or a non-fungible token.

NFTs use the same blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies to turn anything from art to sports trading cards into virtual collector's items that cannot be duplicated.