The liberal X-odus from Elon Musk’s social network

Summary

POLITICO Tech Podcast Summary
Episode: The liberal X-odus from Elon Musk’s social network
Release Date: December 3, 2024
Host: Stephen Overlea
Guest: Nancy Scola, Politico Magazine Contributor and Tech Journalist

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Introduction to the Liberal Exodus from X

In the December 3, 2024 episode of POLITICO Tech, host Stephen Overlea delves into the significant migration of liberal voices away from X (formerly Twitter), a social media platform now under the ownership of Elon Musk. This episode explores the underlying reasons driving Democrats to either depart from or stay on the platform amidst changing political dynamics and user experiences.

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Shift in Platform Demographics

Nancy Scola provides insights into the evolving user base of X. Historically, X had a user composition of approximately two-thirds Democrats and one-third Republicans, especially among news consumers. However, recent trends indicate a shift towards a more balanced or even Republican-leaning demographic.

“It was about 2/3 Democrat, 1/3 Republican when it came to people who say that they use the platform for reading news... In recent research, it has shown that it's actually like 50, 50 parity, pretty, pretty close to that.”
– Nancy Scola [03:09]

This shift is attributed to increasing dissatisfaction among liberal users, prompting a reconsideration of their presence on the platform.

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Reasons Behind the Exodus

The conversation highlights several factors contributing to the departure of liberal users from X:

1. Elon Musk’s Influence and Personal Politics:
   Many Democrats feel that Musk’s personal political stance has permeated the platform, making it a vessel for his ideologies rather than a neutral public square.

   “The platform has just become a vehicle for Elon Musk's personal politics.”
   – Patrick Dillon [04:41]

2. Unpleasant User Experience:
   The relaxation of content moderation under Musk’s leadership has led to an increase in hate speech, racism, and toxic interactions, deterring liberal users.

   “The platform is just kind of unpleasant, extremely unpleasant to be on for some folks... it's just not worth it anymore to try to make my voice heard.”
   – Patrick Dillon [04:41]

3. Loss of Trust in Privacy:
   Concerns over the sanctity of direct messaging and fears that Musk might not protect confidential communications have further eroded trust.

   “There's no real reason to believe that Elon Musk will sort of respect the sanctity of those communications.”
   – Nancy Scola [09:08]

4. Platform’s Diminishing Utility for Professional Use:
   For many in government and journalism, X has been an essential tool for communication. However, the decline in its utility has prompted reevaluation.

   “Maybe the utility is sort of diminishing day by day.”
   – Nancy Scola [09:08]

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Arguments for Staying on X

Despite the challenges, some Democrats argue for maintaining a presence on X due to its vast reach and utility:

1. Public Square Advantage:
   Figures like Congressman Maxwell Frost emphasize the importance of not relinquishing a platform that reaches 100 million Americans, ensuring that liberal voices remain prominent.

   “This is a platform of 100 million Americans. I'm not going to cede it to folks on the right.”
   – Maxwell Frost [04:00]

2. Multi-faceted Use Cases:
   Users rely on X not just for political discourse but for a variety of discussions, such as sports, hobbies, and other interests, making it difficult to abandon entirely.

   “I use it to read about English soccer. Right. That's how I track sort of like who gets traded on British soccer teams.”
   – Nancy Scola [07:00]

3. Audience Reach:
   Leaving X means forfeiting immediate access to a broad audience, which is a significant consideration for professionals and media personnel.

   “...there's an enormous audience you're giving away to instantly reach millions of people.”
   – Nancy Scola [11:45]

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Alternative Platforms and Future Implications

The rise of alternative platforms like BlueSky has provided liberals with options outside of X, contributing to the exodus. BlueSky has grown to around 20 million users post-election, presenting a viable competitor that could pressure X to recalibrate its policies. However, the sustainability of this competition is uncertain, especially given Musk's apparent disinterest in monetizing X traditionally.

“If BlueSky emerges as a real competitor to Twitter...it might put some competitive pressure on Musk and X to sort of rein in what some people see as the excesses...”
– Nancy Scola [12:30]

This potential bifurcation of social media along political lines raises concerns about echo chambers, where each platform could become predominantly partisan, limiting cross-ideological communication and exacerbating political polarization.

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Impact on Journalism and Information Dissemination

Journalists and media professionals are particularly affected by the shift. X has been a crucial platform for sourcing news and reaching audiences. The migration to BlueSky and the diminishing trust in X’s integrity pose challenges for maintaining open channels of communication and information dissemination.

“It's a distribution channel for me in a time when the media business is becoming... How do you reach readers?”
– Nancy Scola [10:37]

The departure of credible voices could lead to a surge in misinformation and partisan rhetoric on remaining platforms, undermining the quality of public discourse.

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Concluding Thoughts

Stephen Overlea and Nancy Scola conclude that the liberal exodus from X signifies a critical shift in the social media landscape, with potential long-term implications for political communication and public discourse. The balance between maintaining a broad audience and ensuring a respectful, truth-oriented environment remains a central dilemma for users and platform administrators alike.

“If a place doesn't seem to put a premium on truth, do you leave it? Or do you say the way you counter bad information is with good information. It's a tough call though.”
– Nancy Scola [11:33]

As the situation continues to evolve, both users and observers are left to ponder the future of social media as a tool for political engagement and information sharing.

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Notable Quotes:

• “This is a platform of 100 million Americans. I'm not going to cede it to folks on the right.”
  – Maxwell Frost [04:00]

• “The platform is just kind of unpleasant, extremely unpleasant to be on for some folks... it's just not worth it anymore to try to make my voice heard.”
  – Patrick Dillon [04:41]

• “It seems like everyone sort of folks on the right have their own platform, folks on the left have their own platform.”
  – Nancy Scola [12:30]

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For More Insights: Subscribe to the POLITICO Tech podcast for daily updates on how technology disrupts politics and policy. Stay informed with newsletters like Digital Future Daily and Morning Tech.

Transcript

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[Stephen Overlea]

Hey, welcome back to POLITICO Tech. Today's Tuesday, December 3rd. I'm Stephen Overlea. To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question facing a lot of Democrats. Alright, forgive the cliche. It was just too fitting because Donald Trump's election victory has liberals torn over whether or not to ditch X, the social media platform owned by Trump's billionaire benefactor, Elon Musk. If you're on X every day like me, then you've seen plenty of people say they're done. And rival platforms like the app BlueSky have seen a surge in new users. The result is a social media landscape that increasingly reflects the state of politics today. Deeply partisan, with the left and the right less and less willing to communicate. Politico contributing writer and longtime tech journalist Nancy Scola dug into this dynamic recently for Politico magazine, calling up a dozen Democratic lawmakers and activists to find out how they're answering this Hamlet esque question. On the show today, Nancy tells me what she learned. Here's our conversation. Nancy, welcome to Politico Tech.

[Nancy Scola]

Thank you, Stephen.

[Stephen Overlea]

So your latest story for Politico is about Democrats deciding whether to quit or not to quit when it comes to X, formerly known as Twitter. Is this just post election kind of commiserations or is something deeper happening here?

[Nancy Scola]

It seemed the impetus for the article was, it did seem like there was something deeper at work that people who had in the past flirted with maybe leaving X have actually gone ahead and made the move. Right. I noticed Jim Fallow is a pretty well known journalist here in Washington who said he had finally had enough, was not only leaving X but deleting his archive. Right. So that's sort of like a pretty clear break from the platform. So I wanted to kind of dig in and see what was making people finally make this move. Moving over blue sky or leaving social media altogether. So kind of just hearing from a range of folks of what was their motivation for leaving and then also their motivation for staying. Right. Some people, like weighed some of these same factors that the folks like Jim Files were weighing and said, you know what, it still makes sense to stick on this platform. So that was the thinking behind the article.

[Stephen Overlea]

So, you know, I have been seeing this, you know, people posting about a max exodus of liberals leaving X since the election, moving, like you said, to alternative platforms like Blue sky, which have seen a boost. I mean, do we know how real that migration actually is?

[Nancy Scola]

It does seem significant enough that the platform now had been about 2/3 Democrat, a third Republican when it came to people who say that they use the platform for reading news. Right. People who actively consume news on the platform. In the past, the Pew Research center has said that's about 2/3 Democrat, 1/3 Republican. In recent research, it has shown that it's actually like 50, 50 parity, pretty, pretty close to that. So there has been a shift in the platform. So it is more Republican and conservative than it has been in the past. It's not completely clear that it's because of the sort of people leaving the platform that that balance is tilted a bit.

[Stephen Overlea]

Got it. That's really interesting that the numbers have shifted and it's 50 50, but perhaps that trendline will continue. You said that you interviewed a number of Democrats for your story, including Congressman Maxwell Frost, for instance. What did they have to say about why they're staying and why they're going?

[Nancy Scola]

I was particularly interested in Maxwell Frost because he has a background as an organizer, right. He sort of came up in organizational politics on the left and he had said that he posted about this a little bit and said that I'm not going. This is a platform of 100 million Americans. I'm not going to cede it to folks on the right. He had mentioned Tim Pool, Charlie Kirk, some of these prominent sort of right wing figures. And so he just said, I'm not going to. This is too big of a platform. It's still a public square, even if it's a sort of unbalanced public square in the favor of Elon Musk's personal politics at this point. But he said, I'm not willing to cede this to, you know, the 100 million Americans left to hear from the Tim Pools and Charlie Kirks of the.

[Stephen Overlea]

World and who's leaving? What did they give as their reasons for giving up, basically?

[Nancy Scola]

So I talked to, for example, I talked to Patrick Dillon, who's a longtime Democratic strategist. He's now at the Department of Commerce. And he said the platform has just become a vehicle for Elon Musk's personal politics. That was a big reason he gave for leaving. You know, part of the backdrop of this is probably obvious to listeners, but that Elon Musk actively used the platform to kind of boost Donald Trump's electoral chances. And so folks like Patrick Dylan say, I'm just not willing to be part of that operation anymore. And Patrick Dillon also talked about something that a lot of people I talked to who are choosing to leave mentioned, was that the platform is just kind of unpleasant, extremely unpleasant to be on for some folks, in part because Musk has sort of taken some of the restraints off what people are allowed to say and post on the platform. And you get a lot of hate comments, a lot of racism, a lot of content that people say, it's just not worth it anymore to try to make my voice heard.

[Stephen Overlea]

Amid all that you mentioned Elon Musk. Does this really all in some way boil down to Elon Musk? Is that fair to say?

[Nancy Scola]

I mean, I think it's interesting because I think people's personal experiences on X, if it was unpleasant, as folks on left now find it, I think it would have been a slower movement away. Right. The embodiment of the we reject this platform and we're leaving. It's useful to then have Musk as sort of like the figurehead for that sort of. I'm reacting against this is the way the country is trending. Elon Musk is a person who's always had sort of immense personal power. He seems to have immense political power now. And so I think people, you know, it just kind of helped the sort of movement away from the platform that people could look at and say, I'm rejecting something that's embodying an Elon Musk and move away pretty quickly. So I think it kind of did help. I think people would have moved away from the platform just given their own experiences on it. But I think they looked at Elon Musk and said, I don't want that anymore, and sort of moved away from it.

[Stephen Overlea]

Right. I mean, I remember there was all this consternation when he bought then Twitter and what would he do with it? And how would he change its policies? And it seems for some folks on the left, kind of this election, and I think his role in it in particular sort of solidified some of those concerns that maybe were sort of seeded back in 2022 when he bought the thing. It was funny to me, though, because one of the people you interviewed has posted a few times since claiming to kind of quit X. And I guess breaking up is hard to do, right?

[Nancy Scola]

Yeah, that's Patrick Dillon. You know, he mentioned that he's been on the platform for years and years. Right. It was founded in 2006. A lot of the folks that are leaving now have been on the platform, you know, almost 20 years now. And so it's just kind of baked into their workflow, baked into their, you know, how they spend their free time. And so it is tough to leave. And I think, you know, he sort of admitted, you know, I'm giving it a go, but he's not going cold turkey. And he mentioned part of the reason that he hadn't gone cold turkey was because he uses it for other things. It's not as if people use Twitter only to talk about politics. Right. He was mentioning that he had sort of a bad customer experience and wanted to talk about on the platform. And that's not necessarily happening on other platforms. So I think that's, you know, one of the things traps that folks in Washington and journalism for sure, and certainly myself can get into is thinking Twitter is only where people go to talk about politics. And it's not. People go on. You know, I talked to a source who said, I would love to leave, but I use it to read about English soccer. Right. That's how I tracked sort of like who gets traded on British soccer teams or whatever it is. And so it's still baked into people's lives in a lot of ways. So if you leave the platform saying, I don't want to be involved in that political project anymore, you're also leaving behind the sort of discussions that you might still want to be part of.

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[Stephen Overlea]

You know, I remember back in 2022, you wrote a story about why Washington can't quit Twitter, in part because it had become so ingrained in the way Washington communicates its business and politics. And I think falls into that, that trap you were talking about, thinking X is just a political platform. Has any of that changed, you think, in the last two years?

[Nancy Scola]

I think absolutely. I think the movement to Blue sky, which is sort of the rival Platform that's getting a lot of traction has helped to make the sort of like, lessen the value of Twitter for people who want to use the platform to communicate with journalists, which is one of the prime uses that we talked about in that article back in 2022. That's changed a bit now that people are migrating to Blue Sky. It's also changed a bit. One of the sources I talked to mentioned the idea that direct messaging on the platform was a way that you would communicate with sources and sources with journalists. And there's no real reason to believe that Elon Musk will sort of respect the sanctity of those communications. He has in the past revealed the internal corporate materials of Twitter employees before he took over the company. Communicating with each other. Right. So what's his. It doesn't seem like you'd have a potentially not have hesitation to expose direct messaging between reporters and sources. So that utility is no longer there. And so I think that it's tipping quickly. So I'd love to revisit this topic in six months and a year. But people do seem to be saying what I use the platform for in the past in my working in government, working in journalism, working in politics. Maybe the utility is sort of diminishing day by day.

[Stephen Overlea]

Interesting. Speaking of journalists, I mean, I know that there are some journalists wrestling with whether to stay on X given the amount of disinformation there. And I've even had some back and forths myself. And I sort of question whether social media just becomes even more of an echo chamber if you have all of these people of a particular point of view leaving. Do others that you've talked to share that concern?

[Nancy Scola]

Yeah, I mean, it's a tough balance. I'm independent journalist, freelance for a number of publications. It's a distribution channel for me in a time when the media business is becoming. We talk a lot about becoming more fractured, more fragmented. How do you reach readers? It's a useful platform for me to reach readers. Useful platform for me to reach sources. And so the marriage between Twitter and journalism has been. It was intentional on the part of Twitter. Sort of like early founders, they said these are going to be sort of our prime users. And so they really leaned into that.

[Stephen Overlea]

Yeah. In some ways, trying to be like an arbiter of truth on Twitter feels like shouting into a void of like misinformation and blatant sort of political partisanship, if not propaganda. I guess I just sort of wonder like, okay, if the people trying to speak the truth leave, do you just sort of cede, you know, this popular platform to all sorts of disinformation and partisanship. It's a tough call in some ways.

[Nancy Scola]

That's the conversation, right. If a place doesn't seem to put a premium on truth, do you leave it? Or do you say the way you counter bad information is with good information?

[Stephen Overlea]

Right.

[Nancy Scola]

It's a tough call though.

[Stephen Overlea]

Totally.

[Nancy Scola]

That seemed to be, you know, the, the sort of takeaway from talking to a number of folks, generally speaking, is it is a tough call or you are giving up an enormous audience you're giving away to instantly reach millions of people. It's not just something you give away and sort of, you know, it's not not giving up, you know, drinking Coca Cola or whatever it might be. There's let people find a lot of utility from it. That's hard to kind of leave on the table.

[Stephen Overlea]

Right. I, I guess on a final note here, Nancy, I, I wonder what you see as sort of the significance to this political shift on X. If, you know, more Democrats do leave the platform, you know, they move to Blue sky and we have this kind of political bifurcation of social media. Is there a sense of what impact that will have on our politics kind of going forward?

[Nancy Scola]

It seems like that's the worst case scenario, right? Everyone sort of folks on the right have their own platform, folks on the left have their own platform. It doesn't necessarily need to be the case on Blue Sky. It can be the sort of hundreds of millions of Americans who might have an interest in consuming news information and aren't strongly partisan. So that could be the sort of environment created on Blue Sky. So there's the potential for that. There's also the idea, the thinking of if bluesky emerges as a real competitor to Twitter, which it is. I mean, at this point it's 20 million people, sort of a big chunk of those who came after election day. If it emerges as a real competitor, it might put some competitive pressure on Musk and X to sort of rein in what some people see as the excesses that the platform has sort of indulged in recently. The challenge there is that X is not a money making venture as far as we can tell. Right. So competitive pressures tend to work well when businesses are worried about losing business. And it doesn't seem as if that's top of mind for Musk at this point. So there is a question of would he ever sort of change his behavior if it's more useful for him as a political platform than it is as a business? The pressure blue sky might put on X, might not be a sort of mediating effect.

[Stephen Overlea]

Yeah, I think that's a really good point. I mean, clearly, Musk has been getting a lot of benefits from Twitter that are not financial. And so, as you know, if that holds up and he continues to only get richer through other means. So the incentives to sort of change that seem limited at best. Well, listen, Nancy, appreciate you being here on Politico Tech.

[Nancy Scola]

Thank you. Thanks for having me, Steven.

[Stephen Overlea]

That's all for today's Politico Tech. If you enjoy Politico Tech, be sure to subscribe. And for more tech news, subscribe to our newsletters, Digital Future Daily and Morning Tech. Our managing producer is Annie Reese. Our producer is Afraid Abdullah. I'm Stephen Overlea. See you back here tomorrow.