Twitter isn't what it used to be since Elon Musk bought the company in October. But the judgments about the changes in the network go by neighborhoods. In the United States, Twitter has switched sides. The right now sees the blue bird much better, just the opposite of the progressives.
A survey by the prestigious Pew Research Center conducted in March documents this shift with all clarity by contrasting the results with those obtained in an identical survey two years ago. In that time, the share of Republican Twitter users who say the platform is basically negative for American democracy has jumped from 60% to 21%, while the same percentage of conservatives who see it positive has increased from 17% to 43%.
Among Democratic tweeters, however, the share of those who believe Twitter is good for US democratic health has fallen from 47% to 24% between 2021 and 2023, while the share of those who view it negatively has risen from 28% to 35%.
The survey, conducted between March 13 and 19 with a sample of more than 10,000 people, shows a striking and growing partisan gap in the assessment of harassment within the platform. While nearly two-thirds of Democratic users (65%) say stalking and abuse by other users is a major problem online, only 29% of Republican tweeters think so. The difference, of 36 points, is four times greater than that registered in 2021, of only 9.
Americans who vote for Joe Biden are also much more likely than supporters of Donald Trump and other right-wing leaders to consider the information inaccurate or misleading (68% vs. 37%), and the tone or the civility of discussions (50% versus 27%) are key issues on Twitter.
The change in the opinions of one and the other about the social channel coincides with what was printed by Musk in the orientation and decision-making of the network regarding characters and political matters.
Since acquiring the company, the billionaire has restored thousands of accounts that had been banned because of their holders' extreme views and incitements, often from ultra, anti-Semitic or supremacist positions. On one occasion, the outcry against those pardoned was such that Musk was forced to veto them after their readmission, as was the case with rapper Kanye West when he displayed a swastika and praised Hitler in December.
One of the accounts that the potentate restored was that of Trump, but he rejected it because he prefers to speak for his own network, Truth Social. Before formalizing the purchase of the network, the co-owner of SpaceX aeronautics and Tesla announced on his own account his support for the equally ultra governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, as a likely candidate in the 2024 presidential elections .
The Pew Research survey is not surprising, but it is very illustrative.
