Is Everyone Leaving X (But Me)?
WIRED Politics Lab
WIRED
4.2 • 244 Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2024
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Since the election, a number of organizations, journalists, and left-leaning X users have announced their intentions to leave the town square formerly known as Twitter and move over to Threads or Bluesky. Leah talks with WIRED reporters David Gilbert and Vittoria Elliott about what these X-pats will find on the newer platforms, what happens to X when there are no more libs to troll, and just how fragmented online communities are now.
Leah Feiger is @LeahFeiger. David Gilbert is @DaithaiGilbert. Vittoria Elliott is @telliotter. Write to us at [email protected]. Be sure to subscribe to the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter here.
Mentioned this week:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | eBay. It's a place to fall in love with new, pre-loved, vintage and rare fashion over and over again. |
| 0:07.1 | Your favorite designers, expertly authenticated. Yeah, eBay. Things people love. |
| 0:18.6 | This is Wired Politics Lab, a show about how tech is changing politics. |
| 0:23.8 | I'm Leah Feiger, the senior politics editor at Wired. |
| 0:27.4 | X is not what it used to be. |
| 0:29.7 | In fact, ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, the site has changed. |
| 0:34.5 | Not everyone has loved that Musk gutted the content moderation team, |
| 0:37.8 | re-platformed the far right, and promoted his own posts to the top of everyone's newsfeed. |
| 0:43.2 | But Musk himself has been having a great time. After all, he and his platform helped elect Donald Trump. |
| 0:50.3 | So what does it matter that publications like The Guardian are quitting X, calling it a toxic media |
| 0:56.0 | platform that Musk uses to shape political discourse? And plenty of others, journalists, researchers, |
| 1:02.0 | and regular people are leaving too, often for places like threads or blue sky. Are these platforms |
| 1:08.0 | any better? What happens to X when lots of people leave? |
| 1:12.2 | And is social media doomed to more and more fragmentation? |
| 1:16.6 | Joining us from Cork, Ireland, is Wired Reporter David Gilbert. |
| 1:20.7 | Hi, David. |
| 1:21.6 | Hi, Leah. |
| 1:22.6 | And in this studio with me is Wired reporter Vittoria Elliott. |
| 1:25.9 | Hey, Tori. |
| 1:26.7 | Hey, Leah. |
| 1:31.1 | Guys, how are you doing? What social media platforms are you on right now? A violent question, I'm honest. I'm all in on blue sky. |
| 1:38.1 | Yeah? Oh, yeah. Okay. I've just hanging out and people are following me. It's the |
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