By Victoria Rivera
Once one of the top ten most popular social media platforms, Twitter– now X– has been bucked out the ranks. Within only two years, not only has the app ruined its public perception for many, but it has begun to bleed its user base.
Sensor Tower, a software company, estimates that Twitter has lost as much as 23% of its North American daily user base, and dropped an additional 15% of its global daily users. Users only seem to be finding more reasons to leave, and it shows Twitter/X’s rebrand is not icon deep; the app has changed entirely, and it seems most do not believe that change was for the better. After Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion dollars, Fidelity Investments have estimated that it has went down as far as 80% in value— now only worth $9.4 billion.
A large part of this drain in worth is that advertisers will barely touch the website anymore. MediaRadar, an ad tracking company, has found that ad profits have reduced by 24% within the first six months of 2024. Big names simply refuse to be associated with the platform, including Apple, Paramount, Warner Bros., and— after Musk’s antisemitic comments about all Jewish people being “racist to whites”— Disney.
Much of Twitter/X’s ad loss can be traced back to Musk’s leadership; everything he says and permits then reflects on the platform, and many advertisers do not want to be associated with the platform’s strong right-wing turn.
Musk has very openly supported anti-immigrant and anti-transgender groups, in fact giving $50 million dollars to Citizens for Sanity so they could advertise themselves, a group that holds the formerly stated beliefs. He has on numerous occasions shown support for Donald Trump’s run for president, rejecting COVID-19 safety precautions, and conspiracy theories — beliefs that have bled into Twitter.
After Musk greatly loosened restrictions on political ads, the site has been flooded with strong right-wing advertisements. According to the Washington Post and AdImpact, Republicans pay three million in advertising— thrice the amount Democrats pay. Even the most left-leaning Twitter user will still find advertisements of Donald Trump bobble heads, or coins with his face engraved onto them. Unsurprisingly, Twitter’s reputation among Republicans has gone from a 17% favor, to 53% according to Pew Research Center.
Alongside these ads is the spread of misinformation on the site. Though this is largely in part due to the layoff of over 6,000 moderation workers, rendering Twitter’s report system broken and ineffective, Musk has also posted and boosted misinformation on his platform, including racist rumors about Haitian migrants in Ohio.
He made approximately 171 politically charged posts, according to the Washington Post, and they estimate a third of them were blatantly false or had information wildly taken out of context. When Musk himself can get away with clear extremism and misinformation, most other people can too, especially verified users—those who pay a subscription to get certain perks.
Verified users have their posts boosted in the algorithm and pushed to the tops of comment sections because they are directly spending money on the app, there is more incentive to not ban them despite reports. For eight dollars a month, users can get away with spewing hate speech without consequences. This even applies to bots despite the verification system being made to combat the issue.
If someone were to look in the comments of a popular post, they would have to scroll through dozens of blue check marked users. Many of them are bots that copy the comments of other users with more likes to farm engagement, thus getting ad revenue from likes, views, and even comments from other users pointing out the theft. Users have jokingly called it proof of “dead internet theory,” the idea that most people online are actually bots.
Twitter was blocked in Brazil on Aug. 30, 2024, after the country demanded Musk remove farright accounts that were spreading damning misinformation, as well as wanting a proper legal representative in Brazil. Musk refused to do so, believing it to be in violation of free speech. This resulted in the loss of 19 million users according to DataReportal, a number that may very well be higher. Though he crumbled under the pressure and caved into demands on Oct. 8, the damage to his image for protecting these accounts has caused a complete loss of trust from users and advertisers alike.
With Musk digging a deeper and deeper hole for himself, the loss of his own good will has transferred to the platform itself. It is uncertain whether the platform will be able to recover any of its former glory.
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