"After buying Twitter, Elon Musk rebuilt it to his own specifications and preferences. This resulted in an environment we may gently call friendlier to the discussion and promotion of right-wing politics. The goal motivated his purchase and subsequent management and product decisions, and people who still use the platform will agree, in a narrow sense, that its character has changed. From the left: Elon Musk turned Twitter into 4chan for government officials and tech workers."
"This obvious and very public transformation has remained a subject of dispute for a few reasons. For one, it has been a gradual process, a slow accumulation of user migrations, changes to the platform's policies and features, and the evolution of new dominant communities alongside older declining ones. This makes its progress hard to track. For another, as an environment for intra-elite communication, signaling, and coordination, it has been pretty resilient"
Elon Musk’s takeover reshaped Twitter/X to favor right-wing discussion through management choices, policy shifts, product changes, and resultant user migrations. The transformation unfolded gradually as new communities grew while older ones declined, complicating assessment of the platform’s direction. Despite cultural shifts, influential figures continue to produce newsworthy content on the site, preserving its utility for elite communication and keeping many users engaged. A large national survey segmented by preferred online news sources showed stark partisan differences: ICE's net favorability was -26 overall but nearly break-even among Twitter/X users, while Reddit and TikTok users registered over 70% unfavorable views.
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