[Ads-l] "Black Twitter" Not in OED

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Fred Shapiro wrote:
> The term "Black Twitter" is not in OED.  I'm embarrassed to say that I asked Chatgpt what is the earliest known
> occurrence of the term.  Below is its response.  I have not made any attempt to verify the citation.
>
> Chatgpt says:
>
> The earliest known published use of the term “Black Twitter” appears in an article titled “Black Twitter: A Starter Kit”,
> which was published on the online magazine The Root on February 4, 2010

There exists a similar type of article posted to The Root website, but
it appeared in 2014. I could not find a 2010 article with the title
specified by ChatGPT. It might be a hallucination.

Article: Here’s Your Black Twitter Welcome Manual
Author: Akoto Ofori-Atta
Date: January 3, 2014
https://www.theroot.com/here-s-your-black-twitter-welcome-manual-1790885228#!

Wikipedia has a pertinent article, but the earliest instances it lists
are for "black people twitter" instead of "black twitter":
Website: Wikiepdia
Article: Black Twitter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Twitter

[Begin excerpt]
Brock cites the first reference to a Black Twitter community—as "Late
Night Black People Twitter" and "Black People Twitter"—in the November
2009 article "What Were Black People Talking About on Twitter Last
Night?" by Choire Sicha, co-founder of current-affairs website The
Awl. Sicha described it as "huge, organic and … seemingly seriously
nocturnal"—in fact, active around the clock.
[End excerpt]

Below is the article referred to by Wikipedia.
Website: Medium
Article: What Were Black People Talking About on Twitter Last Night?
Author: Choire Sicha
Date: Nov 11, 2009
https://medium.com/the-awl/what-were-black-people-talking-about-on-twitter-last-night-4408ca0ba3d6

[Begin excerpt]
The only reason that White People Twitter knows about Black People
Twitter is because when you white people wake up on the East Coast or
when you go to bed late on the West Coast, the trending topics are
hilarious chat-memes, ruling the trending topics, and yes, last
night’s was the very funny #uainthittinitright.
[End excerpt]

There are a wide variety of early tweets which match "black twitter".
I think this might be the best place to search. Unfortunately, the
denotations vary and are often ambiguous. The accompanying links
within tweets are typically dead. Here are some examples:

https://x.com/sugree/status/764527108
sugree @sugree
anyway, i love black twitter
11:39 AM · Feb 28, 2008

The tweet immediately below is included to help explicate the next
tweet from Wayne Sutton.
https://x.com/waynesutton/status/640675292
Wayne Sutton @waynesutton
I need a list of my African-American (black) twitter friends to DM me
for my post on diversity in social media, thanks
10:56 AM · Jan 25, 2008

https://x.com/waynesutton/status/742269702
Wayne Sutton @waynesutton
DM & I'll add you to the black twitter pack list
11:12 PM · Feb 21, 2008

https://x.com/Relborn/status/866890928
RicGames @Relborn
Black Twitter down ...
4:13 AM · Jul 24, 2008

https://x.com/yourblacknews/status/1029074229
yourblack.news @yourblacknews
A black Twitter Portal  http://blck.me/
1:28 AM · Nov 29, 2008

https://x.com/JimmyRothzchild/status/3074978692
JBLANKO @JimmyRothzchild
#itsuckswhen you don't know the Rules of BLACK TWITTER http://bit.ly/6wQvq
4:07 PM · Aug 1, 2009

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