The Platform Is the Problem: Why Staying on X Won't Work
Why "fighting back" on X is just magical thinking
In the wake of Trump's election victory, we've seen a predictable wave of takes about whether liberals and progressives should abandon X (formerly Twitter). These arguments often frame leaving the platform as some sort of moral or strategic failure—a "surrender" of digital territory to the right.
But this framing fundamentally misunderstands what X has become under Elon Musk's leadership. This isn't about "ceding space"—it's about recognizing when a platform has been deliberately reconstructed to make meaningful discourse impossible.
As
points out in his recent newsletter, mainstream journalists and political operatives keep treating X as though it's just another communication platform, ignoring how thoroughly Musk has weaponized it for partisan purposes. The Washington Post reported in October that X "has secretly throttled traffic" to various news sites Musk dislikes, while simultaneously boosting his own posts. This isn't mere editorial bias—it's systematically manipulating what users see and engage with.
The old Twitter was never actually rigged against conservatives, despite their constant claims to the contrary. Research consistently showed that right-wing content often outperformed progressive content in terms of engagement. What we're seeing now under Musk is different—it's explicit, intentional manipulation of the platform to serve a specific ideological agenda.
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