The IT Nerd

Buzzfeed has posted a story where the top line headline is that Twitter is shedding users to the tune of 9% who have left the platform. But there are other things to pay attention to. Specifically:

• In October 2022, just before Musk took ownership, the study found, 32.4% of Americans were using Twitter. In December and January, that figure had dropped to 29.5%. 
• The drop in users was mostly from Democrats, who quit Twitter at higher rates than independents or Republicans. Thirty-eight percent of those identifying as Democrats used Twitter in October, but that had dropped to 32.9% by January. The change in Republicans and independent users was statistically insignificant, the study found. 
• Unsurprisingly, people who identified as Democrats were less trusting of Musk. Forty-eight percent said they do not trust him “at all” to do what’s right, and another 28% said they trusted him “not too much.”  
• Trust in Twitter was never high, but it went up among Republicans after Musk took over as CEO. Previously, Democrats were more likely to trust that Twitter would do what’s right compared to Republicans, but as trust in Democrats sank and trust among Republicans rose, they met in the middle: both at 34%. 

I think this highlights the fact that Elon Musk has really slanted Twitter towards the right. Which seems completely incompatible with his pronouncements of being independent and wanting to have “free speech” despite doing things that run counter to free speech. My thought is that reports like this are likely to send more people to the exits as it will become more and more clear what Elon Musk is up to.

This entry was posted on February 1, 2023 at 10:49 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.