International Hashtag Day
August 23, 2025-August 23, 2025 -
Global, Global
The history of this day wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the background of the day’s subject: the hashtag.
Before the early 2000s, this little symbol was often used to indicate numbers. Sometimes called a pound sign (not to be confused with British currency symbol £), this little mark was standard on telephones, often used for retrieving voicemail or other activities.
But folks who were out in the twitter-sphere back in the mid-2000s might remember the first time a hashtag as it is known today made an appearance – on August 23, 2007.
The concept was created by the self-proclaimed “hash godfather”, Chris Messina, a product designer who wanted to make it easier for people on Twitter (X) to be able to search out topics.
He was inspired by the tag feature on Flickr and made a post suggesting that the symbol would help organize social media in a more orderly fashion.
Three days later, the term “hashtag” was first used in a blog post and it didn’t take long for the concept to catch on. Its first viral moment in 2012 when #CeaseFire was used. Hashtag use evolved and spread throughout various platforms such as Instagram, Pinterist, Reddit, Tiktok and more.
Today, more than 100 million hashtags are used every single day. So whether for good or bad, since the hashtag began, the world of social media has never quite been the same!
The first International Hashtag Day was celebrated in 2018 as a nod to Chris Messina’s original idea.
23 Aug 25
00:00 - 23:59
International Hashtag Day
