Twitter denies rumours that it’s shutting down

Johannesburg - Social media network Twitter has vehemently denied rumours that it will be shutting down in 2017.

On Thursday, the hashtag #SaveTwitter started trending on social media.

"There is absolutely no truth to the claims whatsoever," a spokesperson for Twitter told Reuters.

The source of the hashtag is unclear but reports suggest that the tweets originated from a Twitter user who allegedly suffered online bullying.

However, Twitter - which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange - has also been under pressure for failing to grow its user base fast enough.

Twitter only managed to attract three million new monthly active users (MAU) in the second quarter of 2016, bringing its total user base to 313 million.

Earlier this year, photo messaging app Snapchat overtook Twitter by daily active users.

Snapchat reported that it has 150 million people using its service daily while Twitter has less than 140 million daily users, according analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.