Twitter—now rebranded as X—was famously built on ruthless brevity. Launched in 2006, it borrowed from SMS constraints: 160 characters total, minus 20 reserved for usernames, leaving just 140 characters for the actual message. That tiny window forced a unique style of communication: haiku-like precision, clever abbreviations ("u" instead of "you", "gr8" for "great"), threaded storytelling via 1/10 numbering, and an entire culture of subtext conveyed through sarcasm, emojis, and implication.
A picture was literally worth 1000 words because attaching one didn't eat into your precious 140. The limit wasn't just technical—it shaped behavior. People learned to edit ruthlessly, prioritize punchlines, weaponize brevity for virality. "Brevity is the soul of wit" became platform gospel. Long rants got mocked as "novels"; threads were the workaround for depth.
Everything changed in November 2017 when Twitter doubled the limit to 280 characters. The decision sparked outrage among purists who feared the platform would lose its soul. Studies later showed average tweet length increased modestly, but the core remained: most people still wrote short. The extra space mostly helped non-English users (especially in logographic languages like Chinese or Japanese that packed more meaning per character) and let everyone breathe a little easier without constant abbreviation.
Then came the Musk era. After the 2022 acquisition, X began treating character limits as a subscription perk rather than a universal constraint. In 2023, X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue) users gained access to progressively longer posts: first ~4,000 characters, then 10,000, eventually settling at 25,000 characters for long-form content. Free users stayed capped at 280. Direct messages hit 10,000 characters. The platform now officially distinguishes "posts" (280-char standard) from "longer posts" (up to 25k for subscribers).
By February 2026, 1000 words is no longer impossible on X—it's comfortably achievable for Premium users.
Let's do the math. Average English word length (including spaces) is roughly 4.7–5 characters. A clean 1000-word piece typically lands around 5,000–6,000 characters (counting spaces and punctuation). Even conservative estimates put 1000 words at under 7,000 characters. That's well below the 25,000-character ceiling for Premium subscribers. You could fit roughly 4–5 thousand-word essays into one long post if you really wanted to.
Visually, though, X still respects the old aesthetic. Long posts are truncated in timelines at ~280 characters with a "Show more" expander. Readers see the hook first; only those interested click to reveal the wall of text. This preserves feed scannability while allowing depth for those who opt in. Mentions in the first 280 characters notify the tagged user; anything after usually doesn't (a small but meaningful design choice to prevent spam).
So what does posting 1000 actual words on X feel like in practice?
It feels like blogging inside a tweet. You can embed formatting (bold, italics via Markdown-like syntax in some clients), attach images/videos/GIFs, include polls, and still get likes, replies, reposts, and quote-posts. The algorithm seems to treat very long posts differently—engagement often concentrates in the opening section unless the topic is extremely compelling. Writers report higher completion rates when they front-load value and use frequent paragraph breaks, subheadings (via ALL CAPS or emojis), and numbered lists.
Culturally, the shift has mixed effects. Some celebrate the freedom: journalists drop mini-essays, authors share chapter excerpts, academics post literature reviews, therapists thread nuanced mental-health explanations, and hobbyists publish deep-dive reviews without linking off-platform. X becomes a hybrid between microblogging and lightweight blogging.
Others mourn the death of constraint. The magic of 140 (and even 280) was forced editing—ideas had to earn their place. Now, with no real penalty for verbosity (beyond reader patience), some feeds fill with unedited diary entries, copy-pasted Reddit rants, SEO-optimized word salads, and pay-to-say-more privilege. The platform's signal-to-noise ratio arguably suffers when anyone with $8–16/month can flood timelines with 25,000-character monologues.
Yet data suggests most users still prefer short form. Even Premium subscribers rarely max out the limit. The median post length remains far below 280; the power users who write 1000+ words are outliers. The long-post feature is more safety valve than default mode.
Major shareholders on Twitter
Here’s a clear breakdown of the major shareholders of Twitter (now X Holdings, after Elon Musk’s acquisition in 2022):
Major Shareholders of X (formerly Twitter)
Key Context
Twitter was publicly traded until late 2022, when Musk took it private under X Holdings.
Since then, ownership has been concentrated among Musk and a handful of private investors.
Ordinary investors can no longer buy Twitter/X stock directly, though some funds (like Ark Venture Fund) provide indirect exposure.
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