Since announcing our partnership with Twitter we’ve noticed a lot of great discussion over it. We’d like to take this opportunity to address exactly what we’re doing:

We believe shining a light on Black Twitter will help show its power and push forward the agenda of African-Americans in the public domain. That’s why, six months ago, we began working with the social media platform to show the awesomeness, magic and power of Black Twitter. 

During that time, BET and Twitter have talked to hundreds of African-American Black Twitter users, including academics who study Black Twitter, everyday users that love the platform, content creators of popular hashtags and influencers who have created movements changing news cycles and cultural dialogue. 

Our goal is to show the world how truly amazing Black Twitter is, whether we are tackling issues like brutality against African-Americans, reacting to TV shows or laughing at #ThanksgivingWithBlackFamilies.

As you know, Direct Messages, or DMs, are private and thus not part of any of this analysis. Our study will look at the origin of over 150 of the most popular publicly available hashtags, which constitute over 30 million tweets, to help interested parties reach African-Americans in an authentic way. We desire for more brands to understand the issues important to Black culture and to help be a part of the solution.

We’re excited to be able to bring this to you and understand any skepticism coming from our announcement. Best believe our intentions are to push the culture forward and shine a light on the creative, hilarious, thought-provoking and movement-starting platform Black Twitter has become.