Pew Study: X Now More Popular With Conservatives

The social media site X has grown more popular among conservatives since tech billionaire Elon Musk acquired the platform in October 2022, a new Pew Research Center study found.

Since Musk took over the site formerly known as Twitter, the percentage of Republican users who say it is "mostly good" for American democracy has more than tripled. In 2021, just 17% of Republican users said Twitter was good for democracy. Now, that figure has spiked to 53%, according to the survey.

Opinion has moved in the opposite direction among those on the left, however. Forty-seven percent of Democrats said they thought Twitter was good for democracy in 2021. Now, just over a quarter of Democrat users — or 26% — said X is good for democracy in America.

The study found that, under Musk's ownership, X has become a site where more than half of conservatives who post about politics say their views "feel welcome." By contrast, just a third of Democrats say they feel their political views are welcome on the platform. Left-leaning users are also more than three times as likely as their conservative counterparts to say that harassment is a "major problem" on the site.

When he purchased the platform, Musk was openly critical of the "far, far left San Francisco views" that he said dominated Twitter at the time and frequently posted about his desire to create a platform dedicated to supporting free speech.

He has since reversed a ban on former President Donald Trump and reinstated the account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, while posting about COVID-19, gender transition care for children and President Joe Biden, whom he has called the Democratic Party's "grim puppet."

The Pew study comes just five months before the 2024 presidential election, where social media sites have historically played a significant role. Almost 75% of X users say they encounter political content as they scroll through the site, the survey found.

GOP politicians are embracing the change at X, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announcing his 2024 presidential campaign on the platform in May of last year, in the first such event on social media. X is also set to host a town hall with Trump; Biden reportedly declined to participate.

The study of more than 10,200 U.S. adults was conducted March 18-24 and released on Wednesday. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.