Contested / Myth (Fact-check)
'An Indian teenager invented email'
modern claimClaim by V. A. Shiva AyyaduraiEMAIL program (1979); copyright registered 1982; claim publicised from 2011Diaspora (work abroad)
1978Contested-Myth
Claims that Shiva Ayyadurai, born in Mumbai, invented email with a program he wrote as a teenager in New Jersey.
- Dated
- 1978–2025
- As scholars put it
- modern claim
- Originator
- Claim by V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai
- Source text
- EMAIL program (1979); copyright registered 1982; claim publicised from 2011
- Region
- Diaspora (work abroad)
- Discipline
- Contested / Myth (Fact-check)
- Evidence
- Contested-Myth
- Confidence
- High
- Verification
- Verified-web
Background
As a 14-year-old Ayyadurai wrote an interoffice mail program called EMAIL for a medical college in New Jersey, and registered its copyright in 1982. From 2011 he promoted himself as the inventor of email, and several outlets initially repeated the claim.
Significance
Email predates his program. Networked email began on ARPANET in 1971 with Ray Tomlinson, and to, from, cc and date headers were already in use in the 1970s. The Smithsonian and The Washington Post corrected their reports.
What the evidence says
Widely shared on Indian social media.
Historians agree EMAIL was an impressive teenage project but not the first email system. A copyright protects a program's code, not the idea of email.
Further reading
Related
Corrections and additional sources: edit IND-407 on GitHub.