BARCELONA - Focusing on whether Twitter, Facebook, or other social-networking services were responsible for the successful uprising in Egypt takes away from what the people in that region accomplished, Twitter's chief executive, Dick Costolo, said here today at Mobile World Congress.
In a keynote presentation, Costolo said that while "it's not our place to comment on whether we're important or not," the emphasis on Twitter and Facebook "takes away from what these people have accomplished."
Many have said that Twitter and Facebook allowed protestors in Egypt, Tunisia, and elsewhere to organize and push their cause forward. But as many pointed out, the protests continued and in some cases grew even after Egypt cut off access to the Internet, so some questioned how big an impact Twitter and Facebook really had.
Costolo stressed that "it's not just us; we're probably a very, very small piece of the puzzle." Ultimately, however, "all we care about is ensuring that we're instantly connecting people to whatever is meaningful to them" - whether that's the uprising in Egypt or the latest episode of "Glee."
"People live in the desert because they know how to find a way to water, and just like those people, where Twitter is blocked, [it] challenges you to find another way to use it" or get your message out.
That being said, Costolo did acknowledge that Twitter has seen a "dramatic" increase in the number of sign-ups from people in North Africa and the Middle East recently.
He pointed to a recent Guardian article that questioned whether Twitter was the voice of a revolution or a social media cash cow. "While I don't favor 'social media cash cow' as a description of our business ... it shouldn't matter. If we can provide social context, both things are possible," Costolo concluded.
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