X remains a popular destination for people highly engaged in politics, with DC insiders reluctantly buying blue checks and candidates paying for cheap ads

NOTUS 2024-06-10

Context & Ripple Effects

X’s political-business push followed its relaxation of political-ad rules and outreach to advertisers and a reported effort to build a dedicated political-ad sales operation. The result described here is a narrow but commercially valuable audience: political professionals still need access to an engaged conversation space.

The story matters because it separates broad platform popularity from commercial-intent density. Even reluctant institutional users can become paying customers when their work depends on reaching politically attentive participants.

First-order effects

Washington political insiders face a practical choice: pay for blue-check access or accept reduced standing on a platform still central to their professional audience.
Candidates gain a lower-cost paid channel for reaching politically engaged users, while X gains subscription and advertising revenue from election activity.

Second-order effects

X’s political-ad sales effort has more reason to prioritize campaigns and political consultants, reinforcing a product and sales focus on high-intent political demand.
Political advertisers can shift marginal spend toward X when its ads remain inexpensive, putting pressure on other channels to demonstrate superior reach, targeting, or brand-safety value.

Third-order effects

If this pattern persists, political discourse platforms may be sustained less by universal consumer appeal than by specialized professional users whose audience access is commercially indispensable.
The longer-term trade-off is that revenue incentives tied to political engagement can make platform governance and advertiser-suitability decisions more consequential for the information ecosystem.

The trend: Political platforms are increasingly monetizing concentrated, high-intent professional audiences even as their broader user bases fragment.

Discussion

@mollyjongfast Molly Jong-Fast on threads
I don't totally agree. if @zuck wants he could totally End x if he made threads a more user friendly experience and offered greater algorithmic transparency
@goldengateblond Shauna Wright on threads
I've worked in/on tech for a long time and truly never seen a company throw away a clear and easy opportunity to crush a competitor like this
@aaron.rupar Aaron Rupar on threads
Some real talk about this platform: It has become clear to me that as an account that posts about politics, it's impossible to grow an audience...I think it's safe to say at this point that Threads simply is not a suitable replacement for twitter. It's disappointing but the reac…
@joanwestenberg Joan Westenberg on threads
When you have over 100,000 followers, complaining about not being able to grow your account on Threads is absolutely a damn choice
@joanwestenberg Joan Westenberg on threads
I deleted my Twitter account with 30k followers back when it was still called Twitter. As a journo and writer, I have no interest in supporting Musk's propaganda machine. I started again on Threads and Mastodon with zero followers. I have worked every day to grow my audience a…
@theromit Romit Mehta on threads
There's enough news pubs updating here, enough tech pubs updating here, bunch of public personalities posting here, and the normal banter is fun. Don't like the ex-Twitter users who are looking for an exact replacement bevause peak Twitter was lightning captured in a bottle and …
@moskov Dustin Moskovitz on threads
yea, it's crazy, the three of us may as well be in an empty room. I don't even know why I still come here 27 times per day.
@persistent_one3 @persistent_one3 on threads
It's because @Mosseri is running his own agenda, with a focus on the latest fashion trends and nail polish colors. He isn't intellectually capable of administering to a site with breaking news, political engagement, or meaningful discussions about policy decisions that affect AL…
@drewharwell Drew Harwell on threads
Twitter is 18 years old; Threads is less than one. No one should have expected a bunch of addicted DC types to stop using it overnight. Social platforms don't suddenly implode, they erode and decline over time. Personally I find X basically useless
@pmsbiker Amy Blackmond on threads
Are death threats considered to be engagement?
@kbode Karl Bode on threads
“what can I do, musk won, I guess I'll just keep using a nazi site (twitter) to drive subscription revenues to the other nazi friendly site (substack) I'm still using because I have no ethical backbone or am too lazy to build engagement or audience elsewhere.”
@kbode Karl Bode on threads
I think this is what journalists without an ethical backbone who keep using a shitty right wing propaganda mill to chase engagement want to tell themselves
@blackgirlinmaine Shay Stewart-Bouley on threads
There is no Twitter replacement. Just a shifting social media landscape, where these spaces are not as informative or useful as they once were. That said, I do think Threads is the closest community vibe to the ole Twitter. Mastodon failed, Bluesky is like an insular club wher…
@dankennedy_nu Dan Kennedy on threads
We don't need a news-friendly algorithm. We need lists so we can do it ourselves.
@charlotteahenry Charlotte Henry on threads
I wrote about this in my newsletter yesterday! Lack of news is stifling threads. https://newsletter.theaddition.net/ ...
@dankennedy_nu Dan Kennedy on threads
There is some truth to this. In particular, folks who work in local news and the Mass. political community, two categories I need to follow, haven't budged.
@timfullerton Tim Fullerton on threads
I simply do not understand spending all that time/resources to build a real-time app if you're not going to push news. That's what keeps platforms like this alive since it's always on. You cannot have a Twitter-like app when you deprioritize news. It simply will not work. And…
@pet_czar @pet_czar on threads
I'll never understand why Threads didn't seize the opportunity to be the number one. It was theirs for the taking. People were begging for news, breaking events, and politics, and they ignored it. Go look at any comments under @mosseri posts, and you'll see the pleas. And all…
@rmilliken439 Rebecca Milliken on threads
I left twitter before I started on threads. It had become a shit show. I didn't see people I followed anymore. Nothing made sense. There was a bunch of right wing shit I don't want to see. It wasn't the same.
@tomgara Tom Gara on threads
This seems like a directionally correct take, Twitter is still extremely vibrant. But it's also rooted in the dumb media narrative obsession with places being either dead or dominant, dying or taking over. That's almost never true on the internet or in the economy in general
@chaddie94 Chad Smith on threads
Hey @mosseri , politics ( real news) is what people want. Stop throttling political posters
@astroattorneyastroimaging Linda Groezinger on threads
First there is no such thing as political conversation on Twitter. Second this is all about the egotistical little shitpile self-absorbed egotistical little reporters & journalists not following anyone else on threads but demanding that they have a big following.
@kbode Karl Bode on threads
Twitter is now a right wing propaganda and spam mill run by an ignorant fascist, and I'm embarrassed for anybody (especially journalists) still using it, funding it, or helping lend it credibility
@digiphile Alex Howard on threads
This report on who's using X/Twitter in DC...has human perspectives that reflect their arc, but is missing data on what % of “verifiedl [sic] journalists, politicians, nonprofits, officials, & federal agencies are paying-to-get-seen...It's framed around people “returning,"" but h…
@ikepigott Isaac Pigott on threads
Pretty pretty please come back to the site where my account has better traction
@nickdavis1095 Nick Davis on threads
As an alleged journalist, this guy's take is why our news media is by and large utter rubbish. It's not just the CEOs, it's the rank and file hacks that make the whole thing shite.
@tomgara Tom Gara on threads
Threads, of course, was dead on arrival and then died again maybe a dozen times since. Twitter keeps dying. Facebook has been in a quantum superposition of both dead and dominant for Good knows how long now. I think Google was dying for a while there but it's domanint AI searc…
@brianstelter Brian Stelter on threads
“The argument is over; the hellsite is back. It's a win for Musk, but one that people absolutely do not want to hand to him.”
@mollyjongfast Molly Jong-Fast on threads
I think I'm correct https://www.notus.org/...
@jilldlawrence Jill Lawrence on threads
Thank you. A lot of folks who don't understand the news business are being very annoyed and snarky at me for staying there while still trying here. Even attacking me for not being verified here— which @threads refused to do despite my well documented 40+ years as a national pol…
@dangillmor@mastodon.social Dan Gillmor on mastodon
It is an ongoing disgrace that journalists continue to support Musk's evil business. If you know a reporter who's using Twitter, please tell him/her to stop disrespecting the audience, and the craft. — https://www.notus.org/...
@campuscodi@mastodon.social Catalin Cimpanu on mastodon
@Techmeme What are these authors on about. Just because you have a flood of troll farms on newly-registered verified badge accounts post content that doesn't mean it's a hot destination for politics. It's literal content spam from threat actors with agendas. …
@misc@mastodon.social Jesse Baer on mastodon
Seeing a lot of lamentation about this situation and, outside of tech projects, scant evidence of active efforts to change it — https://www.notus.org/...
@fendersonia.bsky.social Deral Fenderson on bluesky
Sounds like a terrible place. [embedded post]
@warhorsey.bsky.social Jack on bluesky
i spend waaay less time on twitter than i did a year ago. now im mostly here or on guitar subreddits. 🤷‍♂️ [embedded post]
@danielschuman Daniel Schuman on x
In the most meta moment I can imagine, I've unblocked Twitter so I can post a story from @NOTUSreports by @EvanMcS & @Alex_Roarty about Twitter in which I'm quoting on its use and future alongside @ChrisMurphyCT @JohnFetterman @MollyJongFast @igorbobic https://www.notus.org/...
@estherschindler Esther Schindler on x
Paid ads for political candidates are all over the platform, and politics insiders are secretly buying blue checks. “Campaigns are seeing it pay off,” said a national Democratic strategist working on campaigns this year. https://www.notus.org/...
@aseitzwald Alex Seitz-Wald on x
We are so back, baby. @EvanMcS and @Alex_Roarty are right and anyone who disagrees...probably won't see this because they're on Bluemastathreads. https://www.notus.org/...
@brianstelter Brian Stelter on x
True! https://www.notus.org/... [image]
@evanmcs Evan McMorris-Santoro on x
I started thinking about Twitter/X a lot after I heard some reporters freaking out that it might be exposed that they pay for the site — a site they see as so important to their lives that they actually pay for it! So we did a story about X's triumph https://www.notus.org/...
@mollyjongfast Molly Jong-Fast on x
In which I complain a lot https://www.notus.org/... [image]
@taragolshan Tara Golshan on x
Buying advertising on X is much cheaper, and the site remains a popular destination for people highly engaged in politics, many of whom are prime targets for donations. “Campaigns are seeing it pay off,” said a Dem strategist https://www.notus.org/...
@evanmcs Evan McMorris-Santoro on x
Why you are seeing so many political ads on X: because X won but politics doesn't want to admit it. A story about Twitter w/@Alex_Roarty https://www.notus.org/... [image]
@alex_roarty Alex Roarty on x
It's 2024. Elon Musk Rules X. And the Political World Is Still Addicted. On Twitter's continued influence, with @EvanMcS https://www.notus.org/...
@jmart Jonathan Martin on x
Grand Bargain: Acknowledge there's no Twitter replacement if Elon stops trying to make “X” happen https://www.notus.org/...

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