The News
Leading Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia said it will stop publishing content on X because the platform has become an “echo chamber” for “conspiracy theories and disinformation.” The announcement came a day after The Guardian made its departure.
Swaths of X users — including US journalist Don Lemon and actress Jamie Lee Curtis — have quit the app in the days following the US presidential election, with the biggest exodus since Elon Musk bought the platform occurring on the day after the election. By contrast, X competitor Bluesky registered one million signups in a week.
Users cited concern over Musk’s relationship with President-elect Donald Trump and Musk’s advisory position in the incoming administration, as well as an apparent spike in negative and harmful content on X.
SIGNALS
The US election was a ‘tipping point’ for X
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, now X, users have been leaving the platform in “peaks and troughs,” a social media analyst told UK-based outlet The i. Peaks typically follow changes to how the platform works, like after Musk’s decision to cut back content moderation, or after he makes controversial statements, the analyst said. Around the election, some users said they felt like existing issues — bots, harassment, and partisan ads — had “reached a tipping point,” NBC News reported. “What people are seeing with X is that it has subjectively deteriorated in value,” an organizer at a digital rights group told the outlet, adding that people “don’t feel safe using the site in many cases.”
Alternatives to X are still in development
The user numbers for X’s competitors “still pale” in comparison to the Elon Musk-owned platform, financial outlet Sherwood wrote. As of Nov. 9, X had 31 million daily active users, compared to four million on Threads and about one million on Bluesky, data from web analytics platform Similarweb showed. A stumbling block for some users looking for an alternative to X is that the other platforms don’t offer a similar experience to the so-called digital town square. Aside from not having as many users, Meta’s Threads, for example, steers away from the news and politics content that drew people to X. Writing about his experience leaving X, a Gizmodo reporter who went to Bluesky suggested it could experience a similar decline as more users join: “Bluesky is hopping. Will it thrive or get terrible like every other social media site? Probably.”
Trump’s reelection could save X’s advertising business
Elon Musk’s close relationship with Donald Trump may prove a boon for X’s advertising business, which has been in free fall since Musk acquired the platform, the Financial Times reported. Brands like Disney, IBM, and Apple stopped advertising on X over concern for the lack of moderation on the platform, a decision Musk responded to by telling them to “go f- themselves.” However, companies seeking favor with the incoming administration — particularly those in sectors that may face increased regulatory scrutiny — are considering coming back, and see renewed legitimacy in Musk’s platform. “Trump’s victory may well mean brands give X a second chance in 2025,” the founder of an ad agency told the outlet.