New York – After the 2024 United States Presidential election that confirmed Donald Trump’s victory, social media platform X (formerly Twitter) witnessed its largest user exodus since Elon Musk acquired it in 2022, with users migrating to alternatives like Bluesky, CNN reported.
More than 115,000 US users deactivated their X accounts the day after the election, and this figure only includes those who deactivated through the website, excluding mobile app users, CNN reported citing a report of digital intelligence platform Similarweb.
This shift follows Musk’s influential role in the US presidential election. Bluesky’s user base has doubled in 90 days, reaching 15 million after gaining 1 million new sign-ups in a single week. According to CNN, Musk spent months using X to support President-elect Donald Trump.
Researchers report increased use of sexist language on X, such as “your body, my choice.” Additionally, Musk’s previous changes — cutting moderators, restoring banned accounts, allowing racist and Nazi accounts, and altering the verification system to boost anyone who was willing to pay regardless of what they posted — all of which helped to tank the company’s core ad business.
Notably, prominent journalists Charlie Warzel, the New York Times’ Mara Gay, and former CNN anchor Don Lemon announced their exit from X this week, joining Bluesky. British news publisher The Guardian announced on Wednesday that it is quitting X, citing concerns over Musk’s influence during the US election process. In a statement on Wednesday, The Guardian said it will no longer post from any official Guardian accounts on the site.
Further, it said that the recent US election underlined its view that X is a “toxic” platform and that Musk uses it to influence politics. Musk who campaigned actively for US President-elect Donald Trump has been named as one of two heads of a new “department of government efficiency.”
In its message to its readers, The Guardian said, “We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere. “The publication said that its journalists will continue to use X as a news-gathering source. X, it said, “now plays a “diminished role in promoting our work.”
“We will stop posting from our official editorial accounts on the platform, but X users can still share our articles, it said. “The nature of live news reporting means we will still occasionally embed content from X within our article pages” it said adding that X users will still be able to share its articles. The Guardian has more than 80 accounts on X with approximately 27 million followers.
