X remains a popular destination for people highly engaged in politics, with DC insiders reluctantly buying blue checks and candidates paying for cheap ads
While former President Donald Trump was actively being convicted by a jury of his peers in New York City last week … Threads: @joanwestenberg , @joanwestenberg , @theromit , @moskov , @drewharwell , @pmsbiker , @kbode , @kbode , @blackgirlinmaine , @dankennedy_nu , @charlotteahenry , @dankennedy_nu , @timfullerton , @pet_czar , @rmilliken439 , @tomgara , @chaddie94 , @astroattorneyastroimaging , @kbode , @digiphile , @ikepigott , @nickdavis1095 , @tomgara , @brianstelter , and @mollyjongfast Mastodon: @dangillmor@mastodon.social , @campuscodi@mastodon.social , @misc@mastodon.social , and @noellemitchell@mstdn.social Bluesky: @fendersonia.bsky.social and @warhorsey.bsky.social X: @brianstelter , @estherschindler , @aseitzwald , @danielschuman , @evanmcs , @evanmcs , @alex_roarty , @jmart , @mollyjongfast , and @taragolshan See also Mediagazer Threads: Joan Westenberg / @joanwestenberg : When you have over 100,000 followers, complaining about not being able to grow your account on Threads is absolutely a damn choice Joan Westenberg / @joanwestenberg : 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 all over again. … Romit Mehta / @theromit : 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 can't be carbon copied that easily. Dustin Moskovitz / @moskov : 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. Drew Harwell / @drewharwell : 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 Amy Blackmond / @pmsbiker : Are death threats considered to be engagement? Karl Bode / @kbode : “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.” Karl Bode / @kbode : 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 Shay Stewart-Bouley / @blackgirlinmaine : 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 where only hard-core nerds thrive, and Spoutible just never caught on. … Dan Kennedy / @dankennedy_nu : We don't need a news-friendly algorithm. We need lists so we can do it ourselves. Charlotte Henry / @charlotteahenry : I wrote about this in my newsletter yesterday! Lack of news is stifling threads. https://newsletter.theaddition.net/ ... Dan Kennedy / @dankennedy_nu : 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. Tim Fullerton / @timfullerton : 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. … @pet_czar : 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 the money they would've made. @zuck Rebecca Milliken / @rmilliken439 : 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. Tom Gara / @tomgara : 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 Chad Smith / @chaddie94 : Hey @mosseri , politics ( real news) is what people want. Stop throttling political posters Linda Groezinger / @astroattorneyastroimaging : 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. Karl Bode / @kbode : 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 Alex Howard / @digiphile : This report on who's using X/Twitter in DC by @evanmcs & @alex_roarty has human perspectives that reflect their arc, but is missing data on what % of “verifiedl journalists, politicians, nonprofits, officials, & federal agencies are paying-to-get-seen, for Tweetdeck, or for ads in 2024. … Isaac Pigott / @ikepigott : Pretty pretty please come back to the site where my account has better traction Nick Davis / @nickdavis1095 : 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. Tom Gara / @tomgara : 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 search results are about to kill the internet, so jury's still out on that one Brian Stelter / @brianstelter : “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.” Molly Jong-Fast / @mollyjongfast : I think I'm correct https://www.notus.org/... Mastodon: Dan Gillmor / @dangillmor@mastodon.social : 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/... Catalin Cimpanu / @campuscodi@mastodon.social : @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. … Jesse Baer / @misc@mastodon.social : 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/... @noellemitchell@mstdn.social : It's 2024. Elon Musk Rules X. And the Political World Is Still Addicted. — “Two years after words like Mastodon, BlueSky, Post and Threads became rallying cries and users declared war on the blue check, those who made Twitter what it was in the days before Musk have returned to using X.” … Bluesky: Deral Fenderson / @fendersonia.bsky.social : Sounds like a terrible place. [embedded post] Jack / @warhorsey.bsky.social : i spend waaay less time on twitter than i did a year ago. now im mostly here or on guitar subreddits. 🤷♂️ [embedded post] X: Brian Stelter / @brianstelter : True! https://www.notus.org/... [image] Esther Schindler / @estherschindler : 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/... Alex Seitz-Wald / @aseitzwald : 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/... Daniel Schuman / @danielschuman : 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/... Evan McMorris-Santoro / @evanmcs : 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] Evan McMorris-Santoro / @evanmcs : 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/... Alex Roarty / @alex_roarty : 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/... Jonathan Martin / @jmart : Grand Bargain: Acknowledge there's no Twitter replacement if Elon stops trying to make “X” happen https://www.notus.org/... Molly Jong-Fast / @mollyjongfast : In which I complain a lot https://www.notus.org/... [image] Tara Golshan / @taragolshan : 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/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
X's political relevance is persisting even as its broader U.S. mobile audience weakened: February data showed a year-over-year decline in U.S. daily users. That divergence matters because highly engaged political users can remain commercially valuable despite a smaller overall audience.
The platform has also made participation more account-centered through its web login requirement, while its policy direction has been associated with a looser approach to contentious speech. The result is a political audience that insiders and campaigns still treat as difficult to ignore.
First-order effects
- Political insiders face a practical incentive to pay for verification if it improves visibility or credibility within X's active political conversation, even when they dislike the platform's direction.
- Candidates and campaigns gain a lower-cost paid channel that, according to campaign accounts, can help them reach fundraising goals; X gains a source of political ad demand and subscription revenue.
Second-order effects
- Campaign media plans can keep X in the mix alongside newer social destinations because its politically engaged audience may be more valuable than broad reach alone.
- The combination of paid verification and inexpensive campaign ads makes visibility on X more explicitly purchasable, putting pressure on political communicators without paid access to compete for attention.
Third-order effects
- If this pattern endures, political discourse may remain concentrated on platforms whose mass audiences are shrinking but whose elite, donor, media, and campaign networks are unusually dense.
- X's experience suggests a more segmented social-media market: platforms can lose general users yet retain strategic influence in particular professional or civic communities, complicating simple measures of platform relevance.
The trend: Social platforms are increasingly valued by campaigns for the density and responsiveness of niche political audiences rather than for raw user scale alone.