就在近日特朗普贏得美國大選后不久,大量網(wǎng)民紛紛表示,他們以后再不準(zhǔn)備使用社交平臺(tái)X了。理由是該平臺(tái)的老板馬斯克支持特朗普,另外X上的惡毒言論也有增加之勢。
喬迪?阿弗里根是一位媒體制作人,也是一個(gè)網(wǎng)紅主播,他在X上擁有5萬粉絲。最近,他在另一個(gè)社交平臺(tái)Threads表示,他以后再也不會(huì)使用X了,因?yàn)椤榜R斯克成了我們社會(huì)和政治里的一股極具破壞性的力量,我不想跟他有任何關(guān)聯(lián)”。在X上擁有百萬粉絲的MSNBC女主播妮科爾?華萊士也在電視節(jié)目中表示,“為了保護(hù)自我,我今天已經(jīng)把推特刪了?!本W(wǎng)紅蒂?瓦特里斯也在Threads上表示,她已經(jīng)在X上活躍了15年了,她在X上發(fā)表了很多關(guān)于流行文化和真人秀的搞笑見解,現(xiàn)在“看到它變成如今這副地獄般的模樣,真是令人痛心疾首”。就連在X上非?;钴S的大作史蒂芬·金也轉(zhuǎn)投了Threads,他對(duì)自己在X上的700萬粉絲說:“我曾試圖留下來,但是這里的氛圍已經(jīng)變得非常有毒?!?/p>
這么多人拋棄了X,轉(zhuǎn)投其他平臺(tái),這很可能會(huì)徹底改變社交媒體行業(yè)的格局。在之前的十多年里,具有這么強(qiáng)大的新聞傳播、意見分享和造梗能力的社交平臺(tái)屈指可數(shù)。不過現(xiàn)在,美國又出現(xiàn)了幾個(gè)千萬用戶級(jí)別的新平臺(tái),比如Meta旗下的Threads,以及Bluesky。
自從馬斯克2022年收購X以來,它的日活躍用戶數(shù)量就一直在持續(xù)下降。去年它大約擁有2.5億日活躍用戶。馬斯克曾宣稱,2024年這個(gè)數(shù)字將增長到10億。不過據(jù)市場情報(bào)公司Sensor Tower指出,在11月初的美國大選日當(dāng)天,X上只有1.62億活躍用戶,而且這還是一年來數(shù)據(jù)最高的一天。就在次日,這個(gè)數(shù)字又下降了500萬,活躍用戶數(shù)跌到了1.57億。
Sensor Tower公司表示,自從X被馬斯克收購以來,它平均每月都會(huì)流失掉14%的用戶。該公司的研究負(fù)責(zé)人西瑪·沙阿告訴《財(cái)富》,盡管大選日當(dāng)天,X的活躍用戶數(shù)略有增加,但仍止不住持續(xù)下滑的勢頭。
馬斯克在入主X后不久,便對(duì)這個(gè)社交平臺(tái)進(jìn)行了重大改革,以推進(jìn)他心中的“言論自由”。他把原推特的幾百名內(nèi)容審核員裁得只剩下了幾名合同工,一些宣傳“白人至上論”等極端言論的賬號(hào)又開始得以發(fā)聲。另外,X平臺(tái)只對(duì)付費(fèi)賬號(hào)提供驗(yàn)證,這實(shí)際上是把平臺(tái)搞成了一個(gè)大號(hào)的收費(fèi)網(wǎng)游。馬斯克還對(duì)平臺(tái)算法進(jìn)行了調(diào)整,使平臺(tái)更容易推送煽動(dòng)性帖子和保守派的熱點(diǎn)話題,他自己也樂此不疲地參與言論紛爭,包括經(jīng)常向他的2億粉絲傳播政治和種族方面的陰謀論。
在美國大選后期,馬斯克甚至親自下場為特朗普站臺(tái),并且大肆“撒幣”助選,利用X平臺(tái)瘋狂搖唇鼓舌,以確保特朗普二次當(dāng)政。后來他一直在佛羅里達(dá)州,就近給特朗普助選。當(dāng)然,他本人也因從龍之功而獲得了豐厚回報(bào)。他已經(jīng)被特朗普提名為一個(gè)叫“政府效率部”的新部門的負(fù)責(zé)人。這個(gè)部門的英文名“DOGE”恰好跟馬斯克親自帶貨的數(shù)字貨幣“狗狗幣”同名。誰敢說這是巧合?
在許多用戶來說,一個(gè)平臺(tái)不管曾經(jīng)承載著怎樣的記憶,但它現(xiàn)在淪落成這副樣子,就已經(jīng)是“人間不值得”了。所以就在特朗普當(dāng)選后,又有一大批網(wǎng)民宣稱要退出X——而且這次是永遠(yuǎn)退出。就算他們決定保留自己的X賬號(hào),也發(fā)誓不會(huì)在上面發(fā)布任何內(nèi)容了。
哈佛大學(xué)伯克曼克萊因中心的應(yīng)用社交媒體實(shí)驗(yàn)室高級(jí)主任喬納森?貝拉克對(duì)《財(cái)富》表示:“一段時(shí)間以來,網(wǎng)民一直在逐漸遠(yuǎn)離X平臺(tái)。當(dāng)然,當(dāng)下有很多人公然宣稱要退出X,但其實(shí)上,這種趨勢已經(jīng)開始好幾個(gè)月了。我想弄清楚的是,大家這么做究竟是因?yàn)槔砟顔栴},還是因?yàn)槠脚_(tái)的體驗(yàn)變?cè)懔??!?/p>
在X走向式微的同時(shí),其他一些形式的網(wǎng)絡(luò)媒體形式的影響力則在持續(xù)上升,比如直播、長視頻、群聊和視頻網(wǎng)站評(píng)論區(qū)等等。與此同時(shí),其他幾個(gè)新平臺(tái)的影響力也在逐步上升。比如很多公眾人物和記者,他們歷來都是X上的中流砥柱,但是現(xiàn)在他們會(huì)在Threads、Bluesky和X這幾個(gè)平臺(tái)上發(fā)布完全一樣的內(nèi)容,在哪個(gè)平臺(tái)火了,他們就會(huì)押注哪個(gè)平臺(tái)。
許多年來,任何競爭對(duì)手幾乎都無法捍動(dòng)推特的地位,因?yàn)樗木W(wǎng)絡(luò)效應(yīng)非常強(qiáng)大,它的用戶越多,它就變得越有用,因此也就吸引了更多的人想要加入。這種良性循環(huán)維持了很長時(shí)間,使得任何初創(chuàng)公司,哪怕是像Meta這樣的巨頭,都不敢在這個(gè)賽道上直接與其爭鋒。十年前,Meta的CEO馬克?扎克伯格曾打趣道,推特“就是一輛開進(jìn)金礦的小丑車”。當(dāng)馬斯克開始對(duì)推特進(jìn)行大刀闊斧的改革時(shí),扎克伯格安排了 15名工程師,開始著手打造一個(gè)山寨版的推特,也就是現(xiàn)在的Threads。
不管人們離開X的原因是什么,他們最有可能去的平臺(tái)只有兩個(gè),一個(gè)是Threads,另一個(gè)就是由推特前CEO杰克·多爾西創(chuàng)辦的Bluesky。這兩個(gè)平臺(tái)都是去年上線的,目前在蘋果應(yīng)用商店美國區(qū)免費(fèi)應(yīng)用下載量排行榜上分列第一和第二,而且競爭非常激烈。Meta旗下的WhatsApp和TikTok也在免費(fèi)應(yīng)用下載榜前10名中。但是X則排在了第29位,已經(jīng)落后于Meta旗下的臉書和Instagram。
目前,沒有一家第三方研究服務(wù)能說清一個(gè)用戶什么時(shí)候會(huì)在手機(jī)上刪除某個(gè)APP。不過SimilarWeb公司發(fā)現(xiàn),就在11月初美國大選日的第二天,就有至少11.5萬名用戶通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)注銷了他們的X賬號(hào)。同日,谷歌搜索中“刪除X”一詞的熱度上升了150%,而且此后每天都以兩位數(shù)的百分比持續(xù)增長。就連《衛(wèi)報(bào)》本周也表示,由于X上“令人不安的推廣內(nèi)容增多”,《衛(wèi)報(bào)》將放棄它在X上的全部80個(gè)官方賬號(hào),這些賬號(hào)總共擁有2700萬粉絲。
就在上周,很多X上的頭部網(wǎng)紅都表示,他們流失了大量粉絲,少則幾十,多則成百上千。比如在X上擁有15萬粉絲的布倫特?特羅德里安在Threads上表示,自美國大選以來,他已經(jīng)流失了大約1000名X粉絲。X平臺(tái)上的另一位百萬級(jí)網(wǎng)紅、善于撰寫政治和時(shí)事通訊的亞倫?魯帕表示,上周大概有1萬個(gè)粉絲取關(guān)了他。他表示:“雖然我也發(fā)過一兩條不怎么樣的推文,但我覺得這和我發(fā)的內(nèi)容沒什么關(guān)系。”
盡管網(wǎng)上有人猜測,這種粉絲數(shù)量的突然下降,可能與平臺(tái)處置“僵尸粉”、“機(jī)器人賬號(hào)”有關(guān),但目前并沒有明確的證據(jù)來支持這一觀點(diǎn)。
無論如何,X的粉絲流失情況,與競爭平臺(tái)上的活躍度增長是同時(shí)發(fā)生的。據(jù)Sensor Tower公司稱,上個(gè)月Threads平臺(tái)的新用戶同比增長了394%。Meta公司也在10月份表示,該平臺(tái)的月活躍用戶已達(dá)到2.75億。同時(shí)負(fù)責(zé)Instagram和Threads兩大平臺(tái)的亞當(dāng)?莫塞里上周四表示,11月份以來,Threads又新增了1500萬用戶,并且“連續(xù)三個(gè)月每天都有超過100萬的新用戶注冊(cè)”。
相比之下,雖然Bluesky的用戶數(shù)量要少得多,但在上周,隨著離開X的人越來越多,很多人都在討論棄用X之后去哪里,Bluesky和Threads都成了人們的熱門選項(xiàng)。自大選日以來,它已經(jīng)新增了將近100萬用戶,總用戶數(shù)達(dá)到了近1500萬。
另外根據(jù)Sensor Tower公司的數(shù)據(jù),在過去一年里,TikTok、臉書、Instagram和Snapchat的月活躍用戶也在持續(xù)增加,新增比例從3%到10%不等。
盡管網(wǎng)民在紛紛逃離X,而且它的推薦算法也明顯傾向右翼政客和馬斯克本人,但是有人離開的同時(shí),也會(huì)有人進(jìn)來。美國討厭特朗普的人不少,連帶著討厭馬斯克的人也大有人在,但是也有人就吃特朗普和馬斯克這一套。
“盡管過去幾年,X在美國的活躍用戶數(shù)量總體上持續(xù)大幅下降,但它在新用戶方面也出現(xiàn)了相當(dāng)大的增長?!盨ensor Tower公司負(fù)責(zé)人對(duì)《財(cái)富》表示。
Sensor Tower公司指出,今年10月,X的移動(dòng)端用戶注冊(cè)量上漲了17%,這也是自馬斯克接手以來,為數(shù)不多的新用戶顯著增長的月份之一。
雖然這點(diǎn)增長還不足以抵消自馬斯克收購以來平臺(tái)持續(xù)流失的用戶數(shù)量,但用戶在平臺(tái)間的大幅遷移,已成為網(wǎng)絡(luò)碎片化新時(shí)代的一個(gè)重要特征。哈佛大學(xué)的貝拉克表示,這種碎片化也將帶走推特的一部分媒體和文化影響力,以后或許再也不會(huì)有一個(gè)平臺(tái)或者一種媒體類型能再次擁有那樣的影響力了。
“推特一直擁有一種與其用戶數(shù)量不成比例的影響力,就像一個(gè)公共廣場,但社交媒體未必只能以這樣的一種方式運(yùn)作?,F(xiàn)在很多人離開了X,社交媒體格局呈現(xiàn)碎片化,人們分散聚攏在其他平臺(tái)上。這種現(xiàn)象再次強(qiáng)調(diào)了一個(gè)事實(shí),那就是以后可能不會(huì)再有一個(gè)權(quán)威性的平臺(tái)了,而這或許是件好事?!保ㄘ?cái)富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:樸成奎
就在近日特朗普贏得美國大選后不久,大量網(wǎng)民紛紛表示,他們以后再不準(zhǔn)備使用社交平臺(tái)X了。理由是該平臺(tái)的老板馬斯克支持特朗普,另外X上的惡毒言論也有增加之勢。
喬迪?阿弗里根是一位媒體制作人,也是一個(gè)網(wǎng)紅主播,他在X上擁有5萬粉絲。最近,他在另一個(gè)社交平臺(tái)Threads表示,他以后再也不會(huì)使用X了,因?yàn)椤榜R斯克成了我們社會(huì)和政治里的一股極具破壞性的力量,我不想跟他有任何關(guān)聯(lián)”。在X上擁有百萬粉絲的MSNBC女主播妮科爾?華萊士也在電視節(jié)目中表示,“為了保護(hù)自我,我今天已經(jīng)把推特刪了?!本W(wǎng)紅蒂?瓦特里斯也在Threads上表示,她已經(jīng)在X上活躍了15年了,她在X上發(fā)表了很多關(guān)于流行文化和真人秀的搞笑見解,現(xiàn)在“看到它變成如今這副地獄般的模樣,真是令人痛心疾首”。就連在X上非?;钴S的大作史蒂芬·金也轉(zhuǎn)投了Threads,他對(duì)自己在X上的700萬粉絲說:“我曾試圖留下來,但是這里的氛圍已經(jīng)變得非常有毒?!?/p>
這么多人拋棄了X,轉(zhuǎn)投其他平臺(tái),這很可能會(huì)徹底改變社交媒體行業(yè)的格局。在之前的十多年里,具有這么強(qiáng)大的新聞傳播、意見分享和造梗能力的社交平臺(tái)屈指可數(shù)。不過現(xiàn)在,美國又出現(xiàn)了幾個(gè)千萬用戶級(jí)別的新平臺(tái),比如Meta旗下的Threads,以及Bluesky。
自從馬斯克2022年收購X以來,它的日活躍用戶數(shù)量就一直在持續(xù)下降。去年它大約擁有2.5億日活躍用戶。馬斯克曾宣稱,2024年這個(gè)數(shù)字將增長到10億。不過據(jù)市場情報(bào)公司Sensor Tower指出,在11月初的美國大選日當(dāng)天,X上只有1.62億活躍用戶,而且這還是一年來數(shù)據(jù)最高的一天。就在次日,這個(gè)數(shù)字又下降了500萬,活躍用戶數(shù)跌到了1.57億。
Sensor Tower公司表示,自從X被馬斯克收購以來,它平均每月都會(huì)流失掉14%的用戶。該公司的研究負(fù)責(zé)人西瑪·沙阿告訴《財(cái)富》,盡管大選日當(dāng)天,X的活躍用戶數(shù)略有增加,但仍止不住持續(xù)下滑的勢頭。
馬斯克在入主X后不久,便對(duì)這個(gè)社交平臺(tái)進(jìn)行了重大改革,以推進(jìn)他心中的“言論自由”。他把原推特的幾百名內(nèi)容審核員裁得只剩下了幾名合同工,一些宣傳“白人至上論”等極端言論的賬號(hào)又開始得以發(fā)聲。另外,X平臺(tái)只對(duì)付費(fèi)賬號(hào)提供驗(yàn)證,這實(shí)際上是把平臺(tái)搞成了一個(gè)大號(hào)的收費(fèi)網(wǎng)游。馬斯克還對(duì)平臺(tái)算法進(jìn)行了調(diào)整,使平臺(tái)更容易推送煽動(dòng)性帖子和保守派的熱點(diǎn)話題,他自己也樂此不疲地參與言論紛爭,包括經(jīng)常向他的2億粉絲傳播政治和種族方面的陰謀論。
在美國大選后期,馬斯克甚至親自下場為特朗普站臺(tái),并且大肆“撒幣”助選,利用X平臺(tái)瘋狂搖唇鼓舌,以確保特朗普二次當(dāng)政。后來他一直在佛羅里達(dá)州,就近給特朗普助選。當(dāng)然,他本人也因從龍之功而獲得了豐厚回報(bào)。他已經(jīng)被特朗普提名為一個(gè)叫“政府效率部”的新部門的負(fù)責(zé)人。這個(gè)部門的英文名“DOGE”恰好跟馬斯克親自帶貨的數(shù)字貨幣“狗狗幣”同名。誰敢說這是巧合?
在許多用戶來說,一個(gè)平臺(tái)不管曾經(jīng)承載著怎樣的記憶,但它現(xiàn)在淪落成這副樣子,就已經(jīng)是“人間不值得”了。所以就在特朗普當(dāng)選后,又有一大批網(wǎng)民宣稱要退出X——而且這次是永遠(yuǎn)退出。就算他們決定保留自己的X賬號(hào),也發(fā)誓不會(huì)在上面發(fā)布任何內(nèi)容了。
哈佛大學(xué)伯克曼克萊因中心的應(yīng)用社交媒體實(shí)驗(yàn)室高級(jí)主任喬納森?貝拉克對(duì)《財(cái)富》表示:“一段時(shí)間以來,網(wǎng)民一直在逐漸遠(yuǎn)離X平臺(tái)。當(dāng)然,當(dāng)下有很多人公然宣稱要退出X,但其實(shí)上,這種趨勢已經(jīng)開始好幾個(gè)月了。我想弄清楚的是,大家這么做究竟是因?yàn)槔砟顔栴},還是因?yàn)槠脚_(tái)的體驗(yàn)變?cè)懔??!?/p>
在X走向式微的同時(shí),其他一些形式的網(wǎng)絡(luò)媒體形式的影響力則在持續(xù)上升,比如直播、長視頻、群聊和視頻網(wǎng)站評(píng)論區(qū)等等。與此同時(shí),其他幾個(gè)新平臺(tái)的影響力也在逐步上升。比如很多公眾人物和記者,他們歷來都是X上的中流砥柱,但是現(xiàn)在他們會(huì)在Threads、Bluesky和X這幾個(gè)平臺(tái)上發(fā)布完全一樣的內(nèi)容,在哪個(gè)平臺(tái)火了,他們就會(huì)押注哪個(gè)平臺(tái)。
許多年來,任何競爭對(duì)手幾乎都無法捍動(dòng)推特的地位,因?yàn)樗木W(wǎng)絡(luò)效應(yīng)非常強(qiáng)大,它的用戶越多,它就變得越有用,因此也就吸引了更多的人想要加入。這種良性循環(huán)維持了很長時(shí)間,使得任何初創(chuàng)公司,哪怕是像Meta這樣的巨頭,都不敢在這個(gè)賽道上直接與其爭鋒。十年前,Meta的CEO馬克?扎克伯格曾打趣道,推特“就是一輛開進(jìn)金礦的小丑車”。當(dāng)馬斯克開始對(duì)推特進(jìn)行大刀闊斧的改革時(shí),扎克伯格安排了 15名工程師,開始著手打造一個(gè)山寨版的推特,也就是現(xiàn)在的Threads。
不管人們離開X的原因是什么,他們最有可能去的平臺(tái)只有兩個(gè),一個(gè)是Threads,另一個(gè)就是由推特前CEO杰克·多爾西創(chuàng)辦的Bluesky。這兩個(gè)平臺(tái)都是去年上線的,目前在蘋果應(yīng)用商店美國區(qū)免費(fèi)應(yīng)用下載量排行榜上分列第一和第二,而且競爭非常激烈。Meta旗下的WhatsApp和TikTok也在免費(fèi)應(yīng)用下載榜前10名中。但是X則排在了第29位,已經(jīng)落后于Meta旗下的臉書和Instagram。
目前,沒有一家第三方研究服務(wù)能說清一個(gè)用戶什么時(shí)候會(huì)在手機(jī)上刪除某個(gè)APP。不過SimilarWeb公司發(fā)現(xiàn),就在11月初美國大選日的第二天,就有至少11.5萬名用戶通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)注銷了他們的X賬號(hào)。同日,谷歌搜索中“刪除X”一詞的熱度上升了150%,而且此后每天都以兩位數(shù)的百分比持續(xù)增長。就連《衛(wèi)報(bào)》本周也表示,由于X上“令人不安的推廣內(nèi)容增多”,《衛(wèi)報(bào)》將放棄它在X上的全部80個(gè)官方賬號(hào),這些賬號(hào)總共擁有2700萬粉絲。
就在上周,很多X上的頭部網(wǎng)紅都表示,他們流失了大量粉絲,少則幾十,多則成百上千。比如在X上擁有15萬粉絲的布倫特?特羅德里安在Threads上表示,自美國大選以來,他已經(jīng)流失了大約1000名X粉絲。X平臺(tái)上的另一位百萬級(jí)網(wǎng)紅、善于撰寫政治和時(shí)事通訊的亞倫?魯帕表示,上周大概有1萬個(gè)粉絲取關(guān)了他。他表示:“雖然我也發(fā)過一兩條不怎么樣的推文,但我覺得這和我發(fā)的內(nèi)容沒什么關(guān)系。”
盡管網(wǎng)上有人猜測,這種粉絲數(shù)量的突然下降,可能與平臺(tái)處置“僵尸粉”、“機(jī)器人賬號(hào)”有關(guān),但目前并沒有明確的證據(jù)來支持這一觀點(diǎn)。
無論如何,X的粉絲流失情況,與競爭平臺(tái)上的活躍度增長是同時(shí)發(fā)生的。據(jù)Sensor Tower公司稱,上個(gè)月Threads平臺(tái)的新用戶同比增長了394%。Meta公司也在10月份表示,該平臺(tái)的月活躍用戶已達(dá)到2.75億。同時(shí)負(fù)責(zé)Instagram和Threads兩大平臺(tái)的亞當(dāng)?莫塞里上周四表示,11月份以來,Threads又新增了1500萬用戶,并且“連續(xù)三個(gè)月每天都有超過100萬的新用戶注冊(cè)”。
相比之下,雖然Bluesky的用戶數(shù)量要少得多,但在上周,隨著離開X的人越來越多,很多人都在討論棄用X之后去哪里,Bluesky和Threads都成了人們的熱門選項(xiàng)。自大選日以來,它已經(jīng)新增了將近100萬用戶,總用戶數(shù)達(dá)到了近1500萬。
另外根據(jù)Sensor Tower公司的數(shù)據(jù),在過去一年里,TikTok、臉書、Instagram和Snapchat的月活躍用戶也在持續(xù)增加,新增比例從3%到10%不等。
盡管網(wǎng)民在紛紛逃離X,而且它的推薦算法也明顯傾向右翼政客和馬斯克本人,但是有人離開的同時(shí),也會(huì)有人進(jìn)來。美國討厭特朗普的人不少,連帶著討厭馬斯克的人也大有人在,但是也有人就吃特朗普和馬斯克這一套。
“盡管過去幾年,X在美國的活躍用戶數(shù)量總體上持續(xù)大幅下降,但它在新用戶方面也出現(xiàn)了相當(dāng)大的增長?!盨ensor Tower公司負(fù)責(zé)人對(duì)《財(cái)富》表示。
Sensor Tower公司指出,今年10月,X的移動(dòng)端用戶注冊(cè)量上漲了17%,這也是自馬斯克接手以來,為數(shù)不多的新用戶顯著增長的月份之一。
雖然這點(diǎn)增長還不足以抵消自馬斯克收購以來平臺(tái)持續(xù)流失的用戶數(shù)量,但用戶在平臺(tái)間的大幅遷移,已成為網(wǎng)絡(luò)碎片化新時(shí)代的一個(gè)重要特征。哈佛大學(xué)的貝拉克表示,這種碎片化也將帶走推特的一部分媒體和文化影響力,以后或許再也不會(huì)有一個(gè)平臺(tái)或者一種媒體類型能再次擁有那樣的影響力了。
“推特一直擁有一種與其用戶數(shù)量不成比例的影響力,就像一個(gè)公共廣場,但社交媒體未必只能以這樣的一種方式運(yùn)作?,F(xiàn)在很多人離開了X,社交媒體格局呈現(xiàn)碎片化,人們分散聚攏在其他平臺(tái)上。這種現(xiàn)象再次強(qiáng)調(diào)了一個(gè)事實(shí),那就是以后可能不會(huì)再有一個(gè)權(quán)威性的平臺(tái)了,而這或許是件好事?!保ㄘ?cái)富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:樸成奎
The deluge of goodbye messages from people leaving X began shortly after Donald Trump’s election victory last week. In explaining their decision, many in the exodus cited the same thing: The huge support Elon Musk, the social media service’s owner, gave the Republican candidate during the campaign and the increasing nastiness on his site.
Jody Avrigan, a podcast host and media producer with 50,000 followers on X, said on rival social media service Threads, that he was done using X, because “Elon Musk is a pretty destructive force in our society and politics, I want no part of him.” Nicole Wallace, an anchor on MSNBC with over 1 million followers on X, said on live TV that she’d “deleted Twitter today as an act of self preservation.” Tee Wattress said on Threads she’d been on X for 15 years sharing comedic takes on pop culture and reality TV, but “to see it turn into the hell scape that it is today has been devastating.” Even the author and very active X user Stephen King joined Threads, telling his 7 million X followers that he was leaving the platform. “Tried to stay, but the atmosphere has just become too toxic.”
The large number of people swearing off X for other services may spell the end to social media as we know it. Instead of just of a tiny number of extremely popular sites for posting news, opinions, and memes, as has been the case for more than a decade, a number of new options are gaining millions of users, such Threads, owned by Facebook parent Meta, and Bluesky.
Daily users of X, previously known as Twitter, have declined consistently since Musk acquired it in 2022. Last year, it had roughly 250 million daily active users and Musk claimed that the total would grow to 1 billion in 2024. On election day last week, X had only 162 million daily users—and even that was a yearly high, according to Sensor Tower, a market intelligence firm that tracks the platform. A day later, that number had already dropped by 5 million, to 157 million daily users.
Under Musk’s ownership, X has lost an average of 14% of its users monthly, according to Sensor Tower. Despite the slight boost in daily users on the day of the election, an “elongated slide in active users” has continued, Sensor Tower’s research lead Seema Shah told Fortune.
Shortly after taking over X, Musk made major changes to the platform to advance what he described as “free speech,” whittling down the hundreds of people that once worked on content moderation for Twitter to just a handful of contract employees, reinstating openly white supremacist or otherwise vitriolic personalities, and boosting only accounts that paid to be verified, effectively gamifying the entire platform. He also tilted the algorithm to favor inflammatory posts and conservative flash points, gleefully joining the fray himself, often passing along political and racial conspiracy theories to his 200 million followers.
Late in the recent presidential campaign, Musk overtly joined forces with Trump by campaigning for him and donating heavily to ensure a Trump victory, using X as a tool to that end. He has since been by Trump’s side in Florida and has been rewarded by the President-elect as the co-head of the proposed Department of Government Efficiency, which shares an acronym with a cryptocurrency Musk often promotes.
For many users, such a platform, whatever it may have once been, is no longer fun or useful. And it’s set off the latest chorus of people proclaiming their exit from X—for good this time, even if many have decided to keep their accounts live, but vow not to post anything more on them.
“There has been a steady drift away from X for a while,” Jonathan Bellack, senior director of Harvard University’s Applied Social Media Lab that’s part of the Berkman Klein Center, told Fortune. “And yes, we’re seeing more people doing it more loudly at the moment, but people have been leaving for months and months. Now, I wonder if people are choosing to leave because of their beliefs, or because the experience on the platform has gotten worse.”
This X diaspora has coincided with the rising influence of other forms of media, like podcasts, long-form video, group chats, and comments sections on YouTube and Discord, for instance. It’s also come amid the increasing adoption of newly-founded social media platforms. Today, many public personalities and journalists—long the backbone of Twitter and X—post the same thing across Threads, Bluesky, and X, hedging their bets on what may go viral where.
For years, Twitter enjoyed near immunity from new rivals because its network effect was so strong. The more people who used it, the more useful it became and the more others therefore wanted to join. That flywheel spun for a long time, keeping social media startups and even behemoths like Meta, from even attempting to directly compete. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg quipped a decade ago that Twitter was “a clown car that drove into a goldmine.” When Musk started to take the wheels off of Twitter, Zuckerberg put 15 engineers to work building a veritable clone now known as Threads.
Whatever people’s reasons for leaving X, the two most likely places for people to land is either Threads or Bluesky, a startup initiated by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Both platforms debuted last year and are currently jockeying for first and second place in Apple’s App store for most-downloaded free apps in the U.S. TikTok and WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, are in the top 10 as well. Meanwhile, X is in 29th place, behind other social apps like Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta.
No third party research service tracks when users delete an app from their phone. But SimilarWeb found that at least 115,000 users deactivated their X accounts via the web the day after the recent election. That same day, Google Search interest in the phrase “Delete X” rose 150% and has continued to grow by double digit percentage points each day since, according to Huge, a design and technology company that conducts custom research. Even news outlet The Guardian said this week it was abandoning all 80 of his official accounts, with a collective 27 million followers, due to the increase in “disturbing content promoted or found on the platform.”
Another data point is anecdotal: Over the past week, many top X users say they’ve lost significant numbers of followers, ranging from dozens to hundreds or even thousands. Brent Troderian, who has over 150,000 followers on X, said on Threads that he’s lost about 1,000 followers since the election. Another well-known figure on X, Aaron Rupar, who writes a newsletter on politics and media, said he hemorrhaged 10,000 of his nearly 1 million followers last week. “While I’m not above a bad tweet or two, I don’t think it’s anything I posted,” he wrote.
Although there has been speculation online that some of these declines could be related to bots or inauthentic accounts suddenly leaving or being deleted from the platform, there is no clear evidence to support the notion.
In any case, such follower losses coincide with growth in activity on rival platforms. New users of Threads in the last month grew 394% year over year, according to Sensor Tower. Meta said in October the service had reached 275 million monthly active users. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram who also oversees Threads, said Thursday that the platform had added another 15 million users so far in November, and was “going on three months with more than a million sign ups a day.”
While Bluesky has far fewer users, it’s been a trending topic on X and Threads over the last week as people discussed where there were heading while leaving X. Since the election, it has added almost 1 million new users, to a total of nearly 15 million.
TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have all added users as well each month over the last year, from 3% to 10%, according to Sensor Tower.
Despite all of the apparent momentum away from X, and the manipulation of its content algorithm in favor of right-wing politics and Musk himself, at least some of the people who may be leaving X are being replaced by new users. It’s possible there is a sort of swap going on—use among people fed up with the pro-Trump drift and Musk’s omnipresence is, to some extent, being covered by people who are attracted to exactly that.
“Although X has experienced this elongated decline in overall US active users over the past few years, it has seen a sizable uptick in new users, or those who had previously never registered a session on X,” Shah of Sensor Tower told Fortune.
According to Sensor Tower, new mobile app users for X jumped 17% in October, among the few notable increases it’s seen since Musk’s takeover.
While this isn’t enough to offset X’s sustained loss in users since Musk’s acquisition, the overall migration among social media platforms is part and parcel to a new era of online fragmentation. This online splintering is taking with it some of the cultural and media power that had coalesced around what was Twitter, according to Bellack of Harvard, and it’s likely that no one platform or type of media will take up that position ever again.
“Twitter always had a level of influence that was disproportionate to its number of users – it had a public square feeling, yes, but there’s no reason that’s the only way social media can work,” Bellack said. “People leaving X, the fragmentation and people sorting themselves in other places, it’s just reinforcing the notion that there will no longer be one definitive platform, and that’s probably a good thing.”