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WP Exclusive On Elon Musk's X, Republicans go viral as Democrats disappear
WP Exclusive
On Elon Musk’s X, Republicans go viral as Democrats disappear
A Washington Post analysis found that Republicans are posting more, getting followed more and going viral more now that the world’s richest Trump supporter is running the show.
By Drew Harwell and Jeremy B. Merrill
October 29, 2024 at 6:10 a.m. EDT
The top political accounts on X have seen their audiences crumble in the months before the election, a signal of the platform’s diminishing influence and usefulness to political discourse under billionaire owner Elon Musk, a Washington Post analysis found. ... Politicians on both sides of the aisle have struggled to win the attention they once enjoyed on the platform formerly known as Twitter, according to The Post’s review of months of data for the 100 top-tweeting congressional accounts, including senators, representatives and committees, equal parts Democrat and Republican.
But some of their tweets are still going mega-viral — virtually all of them from Republicans, the analysis shows. The Republicans have also seen huge spikes in follower counts over the Democrats, and their tweets have collectively received billions more views. ... X has seen a dramatic exodus of users since Musk took over in 2022, according to independent analysts such as Edison Research, which said in March that X’s usage in the United States had dropped 30 percent since last year. The investment firm Fidelity this month estimated that X’s value has plunged by about 80 percent since Musk’s takeover.
But the viewers that have stayed on X now largely see posts that skew toward the political bent of Musk himself, an avid booster of former president Donald Trump who has jumped onstage with him at rallies, donated $118 million toward his bid for a second term and launched a daily $1 million giveaway for registered voters in swing states. Musk, the world’s richest man, paid $44 billion to buy X and has since become its biggest user, with 200 million followers.
It’s almost impossible to say whether X is explicitly suppressing Democrats, as some liberals have speculated: The Post’s analysis turned up no evidence of direct manipulation. The shift in attention could reflect changing attitudes among users who have stuck around, given that many left-wing users have said they left the platform of their own accord, annoyed by Musk’s antics and X’s redrawn rules.
{snip}
Cat Zakrzewski contributed to this report.
Methodology
The Post analyzed engagement data from 150,000 tweets, excluding retweets and replies, from July 2023 to Oct. 23, 2024, from the most active 50 Democratic and 50 Republican accounts associated with Congress, including both campaign and official accounts for senators, representatives and committees. Accounts were ranked for activity based on their number of tweets between July 1, 2024, and Oct. 22. The X data was provided by the National Conference on Citizenship. View counts were measured, on average, more than three days after the tweet was posted; the 10th percentile tweets by age at collection time were collected one day after posting. Data about the number of tweets from Democrats and Republicans in 2022 and 2024 analyzed all such Congress-affiliated accounts, regardless of how active they were.
By Drew Harwell
Drew Harwell is a reporter for The Washington Post covering technology. He was a member of an international reporting team that won a George Polk Award in 2021.follow on X drewharwell
By Jeremy Merrill
Jeremy B. Merrill is a data reporter on the technology desk at The Washington Post, gathering and analyzing data to understand how technology, the internet and AI affect business, society and politics.follow on X @jeremybmerrill
On Elon Musk’s X, Republicans go viral as Democrats disappear
A Washington Post analysis found that Republicans are posting more, getting followed more and going viral more now that the world’s richest Trump supporter is running the show.
By Drew Harwell and Jeremy B. Merrill
October 29, 2024 at 6:10 a.m. EDT
The top political accounts on X have seen their audiences crumble in the months before the election, a signal of the platform’s diminishing influence and usefulness to political discourse under billionaire owner Elon Musk, a Washington Post analysis found. ... Politicians on both sides of the aisle have struggled to win the attention they once enjoyed on the platform formerly known as Twitter, according to The Post’s review of months of data for the 100 top-tweeting congressional accounts, including senators, representatives and committees, equal parts Democrat and Republican.
But some of their tweets are still going mega-viral — virtually all of them from Republicans, the analysis shows. The Republicans have also seen huge spikes in follower counts over the Democrats, and their tweets have collectively received billions more views. ... X has seen a dramatic exodus of users since Musk took over in 2022, according to independent analysts such as Edison Research, which said in March that X’s usage in the United States had dropped 30 percent since last year. The investment firm Fidelity this month estimated that X’s value has plunged by about 80 percent since Musk’s takeover.
But the viewers that have stayed on X now largely see posts that skew toward the political bent of Musk himself, an avid booster of former president Donald Trump who has jumped onstage with him at rallies, donated $118 million toward his bid for a second term and launched a daily $1 million giveaway for registered voters in swing states. Musk, the world’s richest man, paid $44 billion to buy X and has since become its biggest user, with 200 million followers.
It’s almost impossible to say whether X is explicitly suppressing Democrats, as some liberals have speculated: The Post’s analysis turned up no evidence of direct manipulation. The shift in attention could reflect changing attitudes among users who have stuck around, given that many left-wing users have said they left the platform of their own accord, annoyed by Musk’s antics and X’s redrawn rules.
{snip}
Cat Zakrzewski contributed to this report.
Methodology
The Post analyzed engagement data from 150,000 tweets, excluding retweets and replies, from July 2023 to Oct. 23, 2024, from the most active 50 Democratic and 50 Republican accounts associated with Congress, including both campaign and official accounts for senators, representatives and committees. Accounts were ranked for activity based on their number of tweets between July 1, 2024, and Oct. 22. The X data was provided by the National Conference on Citizenship. View counts were measured, on average, more than three days after the tweet was posted; the 10th percentile tweets by age at collection time were collected one day after posting. Data about the number of tweets from Democrats and Republicans in 2022 and 2024 analyzed all such Congress-affiliated accounts, regardless of how active they were.
By Drew Harwell
Drew Harwell is a reporter for The Washington Post covering technology. He was a member of an international reporting team that won a George Polk Award in 2021.follow on X drewharwell
By Jeremy Merrill
Jeremy B. Merrill is a data reporter on the technology desk at The Washington Post, gathering and analyzing data to understand how technology, the internet and AI affect business, society and politics.follow on X @jeremybmerrill
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