Source: Twitter
Countries like Canada celebrate Black History Month each February to highlight the achievements of Black communities around the world. In honour of this annual event, Lade Ogunsanya, Twitt'ers global co-chair of @Blackbirds, has written a post on Twitter Canada's blog highlighting how the social media company is celebrating #BlackHistoryMonth. If you're unfamiliar with @BlackBirds, it's Twitter's business resource group for Twitter's Black employees and allies.
These are five of the resources and efforts you can contribute to or check out:
#TakeUpSpace: Twitter's hashtag for 2022 is #TakeUpSpace. It is "inspired by a growth mindset through psychological safety" to remind users that they matter. If you scour the hashtag, you can see many inspiring tweets.
Custom Black History Month emoji: Twitter's team worked with artists Juliette Mothe and Williams Chechet to showcase sketches that reflect on what loving oneself, finding one's voice, and taking up space means to them visually. When you tweet the #TakeUpSpace hashtag, it will unlock a custom Black History Month Twitter emoji and add some colour to your Tweets on desktop and mobile.
Diversify Your Feed Twitter List: Twitter encourages Canadians and everyone on Twitter to learn and listen to the many incredible voices who use the service every day. Twitter has created a Diversify Your Feed Twitter list from the Twitter Canada account in this spirit. The list, which first debuted in 2020 and is the most followed Canadian Twitter list, is regularly being expanded to include more of the top Black voices from across Canada from media, entertainment, academics, literature, sports, and culture. You can follow it today to uplevel your timeline 12 months a year.
Giving Back: Giving back to the community is another essential part of Twitter's work for the @Blackbirds and the Twitter Canada office. This includes supporting organizations like Operation Black Vote Canada (@BlackVoteCanada), a non-profit, multi-partisan organization that supports the election of Black people to public office.
Twitter Employee Events: Internally, Twitter will be hosting a series of events for staff so colleagues worldwide can join in the conversation and experience. These will include Q&As with various Twitter notables, sharing custom cookbooks and recipes for team members, workshops on wellness and financial literacy, and more.