A look at the hard right tilt of X, which once served as the hub of real-time news and global debate, and how its political shift could intensify business woes
The billionaire bought Twitter to revive its business and make it less “woke.” He has succeeded at only one of those goals.
Washington Post
Context & Ripple Effects
The coverage tracks a political project that predated the acquisition: right-wing users viewed Musk’s purchase as a way to advance a populist agenda, not simply a free-speech change a populist political opening. By May, reporting framed the effort as an attempt to turn the service into a right-wing media heavyweight a right-wing media play.
This article places that shift against the unresolved commercial purpose of the acquisition. The significance is the tension between remaking a once broad real-time forum around a clearer political identity and restoring the business that depended on its wider role.
First-order effects
X’s political positioning becomes more tightly associated with Musk’s stated effort to make the platform less “woke,” changing how users, publishers, and commercial partners assess the service.
The reported failure to revive the business means the political shift is no longer separable from X’s operating problem: the new identity is being judged alongside weak commercial results.
Second-order effects
Rival social platforms can compete for users and news organizations seeking a less politically identified venue, while X has a stronger incentive to retain the constituencies drawn to its new direction.
The gap between political attention and business recovery raises pressure on X to find paying demand beyond broad mainstream participation, aligning with the platform-economy problem captured by the subscription growth gap.
Third-order effects
If political alignment repeatedly outweighs broad-platform positioning, major social networks may increasingly segment by ideology rather than compete chiefly as universal public forums.
That fragmentation could reduce the ability of any one service to serve as a shared real-time news venue, though this article alone does not establish how durable X’s repositioning will be.
The trend: X is a data point in the polarization of social platforms, where ownership-driven political identity can reshape both audience composition and monetization prospects.
There's so much evidence that journos, commentators and experts with big accounts who remain on Xitter are propping up the far right's most valuable tool for propaganda and indoctrination. They legitimize it. If it went fully wingnut, it'd become as marginal as Truth Social. ht…
A decade ago, Twitter added a button to report abuse & Safety capacity because there was a strong business case for healthier conversation & curbing harassment: https://digiphile.info/... In 2023, Elon Musk has made X a safe space...for lies & hate speech: https://www.washington…
Some fresh news about X in our piece today: — Tweets are down 30% since Musk took over, internal data shows — Influential conservatives have seen followings skyrocket, liberals have not — Yaccarino's first meeting on her first day in NYC office was to court Tucker Carlson; X a…
NewsGuard found that X was a leading purveyor of misinformation in the first weeks of the conflict. And three-fourths of the most viral posts on the platform advancing misinformation came from “verified” accounts, many of them anonymous, the company concluded.
A decade ago, Twitter added a button to report abuse & @Safety capacity because there was a strong business case for healthier conversation & curbing harassment: https://digiphile.info/... In 2023, @ElonMusk has made @X a safe space...for lies & hate speech: https://www.washingto…
One year after billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion to revive its business and make it less “woke.” He has achieved only one of those goals. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
While dozens of conservative and right-wing accounts saw their follower counts rise the day Musk became owner and continue rising at a rate higher than before, none of the dozens of popular liberal and left-wing accounts examined by The Post show the same pattern.... [image]
Linda Yaccarino's first day in X's NYC offices, she sat down with Tucker Carlson's longtime producer. They just signed a deal that is likely to result in lots more Tucker content here. W/ @WillOremus @lizzadwoskin @jeremybmerrill https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Fascinating look at the rise of conservative accounts on Twitter since Elon Musk took over, from the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... [image]
Through dramatic product changes, sudden policy shifts, and his own outsize presence on the platform, Musk has rapidly re-engineered who has a voice on a service that used to be the hub of real-time news and global debate. A site that fueled social movements such as the Arab... […
Exactly one year ago, Elon Musk bought Twitter to rid it of a “woke mind virus” and to turn around the business. Today the biz is tanking - and we have new data to prove it. But its longer “woke.” Via me @WillOremus @sarahellison @jeremybmerrill https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ..…
The number of people actively tweeting has dropped by more than 30 percent, according to previously unreported data obtained by The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... [image]
A year later, Musk's X is tilting right. And sinking. Number of people actively tweeting has dropped by over 30%, company is hemorrhaging advertisers & revenue, liars & bigots have been reinstated, it's become a cesspool of disinformation + hate speech. https://www.washingtonpost…
Researchers say a broader political shift took shape in April, when Musk dismantled the platform's system for verifying the authenticity of notable accounts. In its place, Musk's new system allows anyone to be verified with an $8-per-month subscription. https://www.washingtonpost…
The overall impact of these changes has been to degrade the public's ability to find authoritative information and making Twitter central to disseminating unproven narratives, according to NewsGuard, a nonpartisan company that monitors media credibility. https://www.washingtonpos…
One year after billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter, now named X, for $44 billion to revive its business and make it less “woke,” the site's business outlook appears dire, losing users, advertisers and revenue. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... [image]
“The marketing consulting firm Ebiquity, which works with 70 of the 100 top-spending advertisers in the United States, said this month that just two of its clients are currently advertising on X — down from 31 the month before Musk's purchase closed.”
Now that the company is privately owned and doesn't have to file reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, there is scant reliable data about the business. Data obtained by The Post, along with interviews with people familiar with the company's dealings, contradict... …