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Elon Musk’s takeover two years ago of the social media platform Twitter—now X—appears to have caused a decline in academic engagement, according to a new study in PS: Political Science & Politics.
The study—titled “The Vibes Are Off: Did Elon Musk Push Academics Off Twitter?” and authored by James Bisbee of Vanderbilt University and Kevin Munger of European Institute University in Italy—found that academics engaged less on the platform or left it altogether, according to a review of 15,700 accounts from academics in economics, political science, sociology and psychology.
The authors noted that the platform had long been a “prominent forum for academics” and has had a “significant role in the practice of social scientific research in the 2010s and early 2020s.” But since Musk’s takeover, X has reinstated the accounts of various users previously suspended for violating the terms of service, relaxed rules around spreading misinformation, and welcomed former president Donald Trump back after his account was deactivated following the Jan. 6 insurrection. (Musk has also thrown his support and wealth behind Trump for the 2024 election.)
“One somewhat surprising finding was that the biggest drop in academic Twitter engagement didn’t occur immediately when Musk took over on October 28, 2022, but rather around November 19 [2022] when he reinstated Trump’s account,” Munger told the psychology news website PsyPost in an interview. “This suggests that specific policy decisions, rather than just the change in ownership itself, may have been the tipping point for many academics.”
Munger added that the big takeaway is that academics, especially those with verified accounts on X, reduced their engagement, “particularly in creating original content” after Musk bought the site two years ago, which “suggests that changes in platform ownership and policies can have tangible effects on how scholars use social media for professional communication.”
The study reflects what some academics have told Inside Higher Ed—that they chose to leave the site in protest and/or shift their focus to other platforms.
