Founder Of Vine: “Don’t Sell Your Company!”

On Thursday, Twitter announced that it would be closing down Vine this year, prompting a huge response from social media users, who shared their favorite six-second clips and remembered the lasting influence of the video service. But the closure also elicited a larger discussion about culturally important online work, usually done by black teens, and the corporate interests that they conflict with.

After the announcement on Thursday, Rus Yusupov, the founder of Vine, took to Twitter to offer a message to those mourning the loss of the service and budding entrepreneurs. "Don't sell your company!" he wrote. Yusupov founded Vine in 2012 and sold the company to Twitter just before the service's official launch in the same year.

Representatives for Vine and Twitter declined to comment.