The first hashtag was proposed in 2007 by a Twitter user, not by the company itself.
Why it is true
Chris Messina suggested using the # symbol to group conversations, with the example #barcamp. Twitter thought the idea was too technical, but users adopted it anyway. Only in 2009 did the network start turning hashtags into clickable links.
Source: Chris Messina (tweet de 23-08-2007)
Would you rather be asked first?
This is the reading side of the site, so the answer is in the sentence above — that is the whole point of it. Test yourself works the other way round: the question comes on its own, and the fact and the explanation only appear once you have answered.
