A new documentary series about Hulu highlights its impact Black Twitter about popular culture through the eyes of some of its most notable users.
On Thursday (May 9), the highly anticipated documentary series Black Twitter: A People's History premiered on Hulu. The series is an in-depth look at the Black user community and their seismic impact on what is now X, formerly Twitter before its acquisition by tech billionaire Elon Musk from founders Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone. The impetus for the series came from a WIRED oral history article written by Jason Parham, which covered the multitude of videos, memes, and tweets that actually
set the era.
The three episodes feature various figures from the Black Twitter community along with cultural critics Roxane Gay and Jamilah Lemieux, author Ira Madison III and former Twitter executives such as God-is Rivera, the platform's former global president of Culture and Community, and TJ Adeshola. Twitter's former president of Global Content Partnerships. These convey, express the spirit of what it was like to engage with Black Twitter and how those involved helped raise awareness when it came to issues like police brutality, as well as helped spark the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is covered in episodes two and three. “We redefined Twitter the way we redefined chitlins,” says author Baratunde Thurston.
Prentice Penny, who directs the series, manages to intersperse many of these funny moments (embedded in clips and hashtags between users recounting how Twitter helped them cope and rage during the riots in Ferguson, Missouri and of George Floyd's murder, talk about the company's continued failures of its users, as well as Musk's steadfast determination to finally own the platform, providing a wry look at how his machinations, such as allowing white supremacists like Nick Fuentes, helped erode a space that was valued by black people online and take its energy to other places, especially TikTok.
Black Twitter: A People's History now streaming on Hulu.